


I Will Never Die

by Jassy



Series: Grave [3]
Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-03-06
Packaged: 2019-10-31 01:12:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 58,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17839556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jassy/pseuds/Jassy
Summary: Sequel to Ain't No Grave, which picks up right around when the movie took place. So dealing with Valentine and Chester King.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from another song, I Will Never Die by Delta Rae. As a side note, though it didn't make it into the first fic by name, this is the song that Eggsy was listening to when Harry came home and danced with her. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPLdVYb6tUQ Check it out, I love this song. This is, like, Eggsy's song, considering how often I listened to it while writing the first.

Eggsy bounced a little on the balls of her feet, a little excited as she watched Merlin lead the trainees into the gym. She didn’t have a proposal amongst them – she didn’t honestly know anyone that she thought could handle the job – but she’d seen them around, even chatted with a couple. None of them knew who she was, and she’d heard a few different guesses from them thanks to an exasperated Merlin. A popular theory was that she was some kind of personal assistant or secretary. She’d heard that a couple of them, having seen her with Harry, thought she was either Galahad’s personal mistress, or – more hopeful on their part – a Kingsman mistress, whose charms were available to agents. One observant lad had noticed her with James and concluded that she was his daughter AND a personal assistant to someone. It never occurred to them that she was an agent. Maybe, if Roxy weren’t on an extended undercover mission, the addition of another woman in a Kingsman suit would have allowed for the possibility to enter their testosterone laden brains. As it was, Merlin had grown tired of the speculation – so wildly off base to boot! – that he’d decided on a bit of a mid-term for their hand to hand training, starring Eggsy as their proctor.

She was quite happy to take advantage of their narrow views, and she was set to play it up. She wore bright pink spandex and had some upbeat music playing in the background, like this was an aerobics class rather than a real test of their fighting abilities. She had braided her ponytail, just on the off chance one of them was smart enough to attempt to use it against her, and included a few pieces of razor sharp metal in the thick rope. A nasty surprise, and a poor reward perhaps for someone only doing what they were trained to do – take advantage of weakness. Better to learn now, though, when it would result in stitches. In the outside world, she used full razorblades which could go deep enough to sever tendons, which meant a strong possibility of permanent loss of function.

“We are here,” Merlin began, ignoring Eggsy’s jaunty wave at the group, “to get an assessment of your hand to hand fighting skills. Understand this is not your final test. Poor performance here will not result in your being removed, but it will result in intense remedial training.”

“Sir, we’re to fight against _her_?!” Gawain’s proposal, a young man of 21 with shockingly ginger hair, a god awful goatee, and an overabundance of gym enhanced muscles demanded incredulously.

“Yup!” Eggsy answered cheerfully, laying her accent on thick. For some reason, it gave the impression of a lack of intelligence, rather than simply being an indicator of having grown up somewhere in particular. “Think of me as a sub-boss, yeah? You can’t get past me, you don’t get to see the main boss! Merlin, do you care which of your ducklings gets trounced first?”

Merlin waved a hand as most of the guys bristled over being called ducklings or the idea of her beating them. “Take your pick, Eggsy.”

“Right, guv.” She snapped her fingers at Mr. Ginger. “Since you’s so excited, you can go first!”

Rolling his eyes in a fashion better suited to a teenage girl, Ginger stepped up onto the mat. There was nothing in his body language that spoke of fight readiness. Rather, he seemed incredibly bored. He, like the others, she had no doubt, had paid mind to only her outfit and upbeat voice and not the clearly defined muscles that flexed under her skin, nor the knife scar visible on her bare midriff. Ginger put up a halfhearted guard and threw a loudly telegraphed punch towards her face. She blocked it easily, drove her foot into his groin, followed by a knee to the face when he doubled over, then pulled her punch to his throat so that he merely choked rather than died of a crushed windpipe. “That was bollocks.” She wrinkled her nose in distaste as two of his cohorts came to drag him back. “Merlin, ain’t they been in trainin’ yet? Why the fuck am I here if they ain’t even started trainin’?”

“They’ve received daily instruction since they arrived three months ago,” Merlin informed her, ostentatiously writing something on his clipboard.

“Wow. Okay.” She made a show of checking her watch. “I’s worried I’d have to reschedule my mani/pedi, but at this rate, I might even be able to squeeze in a massage! Let’s get to it, boys.” She stabbed a finger at random towards the group and watched the young brunette shuffle warily in front of her. She approved of the caution but was disappointed when it seemed he thought just moving faster than Ginger would give him the advantage. He attempted to dart around behind her and pin her arms to her side. She rolled her eyes, hooked her foot back behind his knee, and dumped him onto his ass. She drove her elbow into his solar plexus, twisted while he wheezed and failed to inhale, and pretended to break his neck.

He was barely dragged off the mat before she summoned the next. With each one that she put down, she could tell that their effort was increasing. The later ones wised up to the fact that she knew what she was doing and at least _tried_. Still, she left each one in a groaning heap. When she was done with the last of them, she waited until they were all more or less standing before speaking. “You’re all suffering from a serious case of the stupids. If you can’t be bothered to open your fuckin’ eyes an’ pay attention, you’s ain’t gonna cut it here. Not one of you lasted more than a minute. I ain’t even a bit sweaty, an’ you’s all nursing bruises an’ a coupla sprains. An’ you know I coulda killed every last one’a you’s. Merlin, bruv, you sure we can’t boot ‘em all an’ find new candidates?” They looked at each other uneasily.

“Not yet, I’m afraid.” The unease faded. “Since this wasn’t an official test, we still have to allow them to fuck one of those up. It won’t take long, I’m sure.” The unease returned, coupled with outrage. They’d all been feeling like the best of the best up until now.

Before Eggsy could say anything else, the door to the gym slammed open to admit James, looking unusually disheveled and holding little three month old Daisy Unwin-Atherton. “Eggsy, have you finished trouncing the cretins yet? Oh, thank heavens! Can you take your sister? I’ve been called into an emergency meeting with Arthur,” he said rapidly, crossing the gym to meet her. Eggsy accepted her into her arms, smiling delightedly down at the mini-hellion that had been making James and Michelle crazy. James tickled Daisy’s cheek and turned to go.

Eggsy darted out a hand to grab his shoulder. “Swing by my office, yeah? Got a spare jacket in there for you. Arthur won’t be impressed by the spit up all down your back.”

James craned his head to look at it then took off at a fast walk, swearing. Eggsy turned to give Merlin an amused grin and saw Ginger had gone all red. “What’s your problem, bruv?”

“It’d be nice if we were facing actual professionals,” he said loftily, “rather than an agent’s child. How is that going to help us learn, when she’s been fighting since she could walk?”

“On the contrary,” Merlin corrected him. “She didn’t start training in any form of fighting until she was eighteen.”

“So who is she?!” the first brunet demanded. “She ain’t an agent’s kid, fine, although considering she’s holding her baby sister, who’s also an agent’s daughter, I doubt that. **Is** she Galahad’s side piece? Is that why she was taught to fight?”

“Colin,” Merlin began mildly, “if you value your bones unbroken, I strongly suggest you not say any such thing where Galahad could hear you.”

“Too late,” Harry said silkily. Even Eggsy jumped and looked back over her shoulder to see Harry leaning through the open door. Stupid of her, of course. She never heard it latch after James left. “You must imagine my curiosity when I saw Lancelot rushing down here, carrying his precious baby, looking so flustered. Though a sudden summons to Arthur would do that, given his current sleep deprived state.” He straightened to walk the rest of the way in and stopped beside Eggsy to caress Daisy’s downy soft cheek.

Brunet – Colin, apparently, had the sense to look frightened when Harry turned a much less tender look in his direction. “Do, please, explain to me the logic that led you to believe that an agent’s child or mistress would be permitted on Kingsman grounds, our headquarters, and given free reign of the place. I am, as they say, all ears.”

“Well, sir, I mean.” Colin swallowed and looked to his fellow candidates for help. “I mean, she isn’t a handler. She isn’t one of the techs. We thought maybe a personal assistant for someone, but she doesn’t work that closely with Arthur, and none of the agents seem to have assistants. We’ve seen her with Lancelot and thought she was his kid, maybe. Eric thought she might be your, erm, lady friend. It’d make sense for you to teach her to fight, considering the danger that kind of relationship would bring!”

“Ah, but you did not call her my ‘lady friend’, did you? You called her my side piece,” Harry corrected, slowly pacing forward. “Incorrectly, I might add, as the term ‘side piece’ implies a person other than one’s spouse that one is engaged in a sexual relationship without said spouse’s knowledge and consent. I am very aware of the quite crude rumors that you’ve all been floating around amongst yourselves. Rather rude, if you ask me. Is it her relative youth, though she is a couple years older than the oldest of you, her accent, which she controls quite deliberately, or her gender that’s tripping you up? What is it that makes you think she is anything less than a professional?”

Colin gaped a bit, leaning back as Harry loomed over him. “I-I don’t – I mean. There’s no female agents! It’s all men’s names, sir, we didn’t think –“

“No, none of you did,” Merlin cut in, moving to intercept. Without looking, Harry planted a hand in his chest and pushed him back. Even Eggsy felt a bit of alarm at that. Intimidation was fine, but that suggested he was ready to do actual harm to the unlucky moron. In a complete abandonment of the teamwork Merlin had been trying to instill in them, the rest of the candidates were moving away, leaving Colin to stare Harry down alone. She couldn’t fault their sense of self-preservation, even if she was exasperated by their lack of loyalty to each other.

Still, Arthur wouldn’t be pleased if Harry maimed a candidate, and she wasn’t inclined to have to deal with the old fart any time soon if she could avoid it. She darted forward and slipped between Harry and the little moron. “Now love, you need to not do this,” she reasoned.

“Darling, I rather think I do. I can’t abide the disrespect any longer.”

“Harry,” she said, rather more firmly, “I ain’t havin’ you break a candidate in front of Daisy. She don’t need to hear the screamin’, an’ I sure don’t need to hear Arthur bitchin’ about it later. He always swamps you with paperwork when you piss him off, an’ we got date night comin’ up an’ all.” She kept moving as Harry tried to circle her, keeping herself and the baby in between them.

“So you **are** fucking her!” Ginger blurted triumphantly.

“Oh my god.” Eggsy frantically passed the baby to Merlin when Harry darted swiftly around her. Merlin took Daisy with one arm, dropping his clipboard, and gestured the rest of the group to get out of the way. It took only seconds for all this to happen, freeing Eggsy to intervene, but that was long enough. By the time she jumped forward to pull Harry back physically, Ginger was down nursing a broken arm AND a broken leg. He was setting up for a punch that would result in a very broken jaw when Eggsy grabbed his arm and swung around to cling to him rather like a monkey. “Enough, Harry,” she ordered. “That’s enough, okay? You can’t beat intelligence into someone, yeah?”

“Perhaps not, but the stupid can be taught to keep their filthy mouths shut! I will not have these worthless little berks reducing you or our relationship to such a base level,” Harry said heatedly. He tried rather half-heartedly to pry her off.

She nuzzled her face into his neck. “Love, please. Let it go. They ain’t important. We both know they’ll all wash out without you crippling them and making all kinds of paperwork for yourself. They’re only here ‘cause of Arthur’s stupid new rules. Just let it go so we can take Daisy an’ fuss over her for the rest of the day, yeah? Lancelot an’ mum obviously need a good long nap.”

Harry sighed, reached for her hair, remembered how she liked to accessorize, and switched his aim to the back of her neck. He tilted her face up for a lingering kiss, which she gladly gave him. “Very well, darling. However,” he turned a flat, unmerciful gaze on the rest of the group, currently huddled against the wall behind Merlin and the baby, “the very next idiot that spouts that nonsense, or anything else so disrespectful, will be leaving here with a jaw wired shut!”

“Love, why don’t you take Dais up to your office while I go get changed? Don’t want her tryin’ to play with my hair, you know what a strong grip she’s got. I’ll be right behind you,” Eggsy promised. Harry nodded and stalked forward to take the baby from Merlin. It was actually kind of funny the way nine fit young men shied away at his approach, stumbling over each other in their haste to maintain as much distance as they could between themselves and the previously soft spoken, well mannered agent currently taking an infant into his arms. Eggsy waved him off, then turned and shook a finger at Merlin. “Bruv, we ain’t doin’ this again unless he’s out of the country.”

“You don’t say,” Merlin agreed. “Colin, Frederic, take Eric to the infirmary. Carefully now, those breaks are currently clean, thank heaven, we don’t want to make them worse. The rest of you, what have we learned from this?”

“That agent Galahad has a vile temper?” a blond suggested rather meekly.

Eggsy rolled her eyes. “God, you’s are thick. I mean yeah, Galahad has a vile temper. That’s like sayin’ water’s wet! Anything else?”

“Well…you must be an agent,” he tried again. “But you’re a woman,” he couldn’t help but blurt.

“So? I got tits an’ a uterus, an’ I still kicked all your arses. It took all that to make you even glance at the idea of me bein’ somethin’ besides an assistant, pampered kid, or whore. If you can’t learn to look outside your narrow mindset, you’re dead,” she said flatly.

“We’ve all seen the portraits of former Kingsman,” one of them protested. “They were all men!”

“In the past, yeah. This is today.”

“So. Are you – Tristan? We haven’t seen Tristan or Gareth or Bedivere, but Jon’s sponsor is Bedivere, so you aren’t him,” another tried.

“So what makes you think Tristan?” Eggsy questioned.

A shrug. “One of the two newest agents, from what we were told.”

“True enough. But no. I’m Gareth.”

Several seconds of silence greeted her at that. Then another one spoke up. He’d been one of the last ones to fight her, and one of the few that had taken more than a few hits to get down. There was _slight_ promise, there, which he rather shit on with his comment. “ **You’re** Gareth?! The trainee that was so good they had to make a new spot for?!”

“Oh for fucks sake,” Merling snapped. “Why is that so hard to believe? She just mowed all your arses down without breakin’ a sweat. More than that, she talked Galahad out of a killing rage. Why would you automatically expect it to be a man? Go on, back to your dorm. I’m so tempted to fail each and every one of you on the basis of sheer bloody thickheadedness.” Sullen and angry and still a bit freaked out from Harry’s temper-born violence, the young men filed out of the gym. As the door swung shut behind them, she and Merlin could hear them start to mutter amongst themselves. “Fucking hell, this has to be the worst group I have ever had the misfortune of trying to train. Damn Arthur and his fool rules.”

Eggsy patted him on the shoulder sympathetically. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll all decide to quit rather than risk Harry gettin’ after ‘em for side-eyeing me.” She pulled her braid around and carefully began to unweave it. Merlin’s eyes widened when the first sharpened sliver of metal fell into her palm. Eggsy gave him a cheeky grin. “What? Never said their shite wasn’t annoyin’ to me too, y’know. I mean seriously, thinkin’ I’m the Kingsman whore? But the dumbshits never went for the obvious target, so. Maybe next time,” she finished wistfully.

“The pair of you – menaces! If I had hair it would be going grey. Go on, you’d best go check on Harry before he decides to hunt the recruits down with a baby strapped to his chest.”

Laughing, Eggsy strolled to the locker room to change.

She found Harry strolling leisurely up and down his office with Daisy on his shoulder. He had, quite sensibly, placed his handkerchief under her as a burp cloth in case of spit-up, and was lightly patting her back as he walked. Daisy was close to sleeping, eyes half-lidded. As always happened when she saw him like that, her insides did a weird rolling melting thing, and she cooed involuntarily as she walked up to them. “Calmed down a bit yet?” she asked, leaning into his side.

Harry sniffed. “Hardly. I cannot fathom why Merlin has permitted such talk to continue. Even if you _were_ in a position other than agent, that sort of speculation and slander should have been squashed right at the start.”

“Love,” she started reasonably, “he’s stuck with the recruits the others picked. Recruits they picked after Arthur made those stupid rules about what a qualified candidate actually was – meanin’ they’s all rich, spoiled brats pulled from university sports teams. They’s used to being allowed to do what they want without consequences, an’ they’s used to lookin’ at women as either toys to be played with or potential trophy wives. I ain’t got the pedigree for marriage, so.” She shrugged. “If Roxy was here, she’d be gettin’ somethin’ the same. The hope,” she stressed, “was that this could be a wake-up call to get ‘em thinkin’ outside those ideas. For at least a couple, anyway. He has to at least try to make one of ‘em into something like an agent. It’s why we had a hand to hand test so early on.” She brightened, patting his shoulder. “Merlin’s pretty disgusted, so he ain’t gonna be merciful. Wanna bet he let’s ‘em see me on the obstacle course?”

Harry snorted. “I shan’t take that bet with you, my darling. Although I should like to see their faces should **I** run it. Imagine, a man twenty years their senior showing them up. You at least are young enough they could pass it off. My time would be a whole different hit to their egos.”

Eggsy perked up. “Yeah? You think that you might be interested in doin’ that?” She licked her lips, thinking about Harry dressed in those combat fatigues, jumping and climbing and crawling his way through the course.

“Darling, please,” Harry said, sounding slightly strangled, “I **am** holding a baby. You simply can’t look at me like that right now.”

“Can’t help it, love. Only time your arse looks better than in the combat fatigues is naked.” She let her hand stroke down his back to said arse for an appreciative squeeze. Harry’s gaze heated slightly and he started to lean down for a kiss. Daisy, however, rather ruined the moment quite hilariously by letting out a truly loud, impressive fart. Being that her tiny diapered bum was about level with Eggsy’s face, she managed to catch the full brunt of it, even filtered through the diaper and plush onesie she was wearing. “Whew!” Laughing, Eggsy stepped back, fanning her hand in front of her nose. “That’s rank.”

Harry coughed a bit, backing away from the site of Daisy’s bomb. His nose wrinkled as the smell followed him. “Oh dear lord, what have they been feeding her? I know James said she’s been unwell, but this smells like she needs a doctor! Crack a window, darling, would you?”

Eggsy hurried to comply, taking a deep breath of the fresher air from outside. When she turned back, she could see her sister’s face screwing up. “Bugger. Think that was a bit more than gas.”

“I’m fairly certain what she just let go has been banned under the Geneva Convention.” Harry, showing a competency that they’d all learned in the last three months, deftly undid the snaps around her legs and took a peek inside the edge of her diaper. His face screwed up. “Would you run to James’ office to fetch the diaper bag?”

Eggsy was already moving. “Back in a mo!” She ran along the hallway, passing Percival with a brief wave. On her way back with the bag she passed him again and saw his confused look melt into one of understanding. He made the mistake of turning to follow her, as Daisy was well doted on by almost every person in Kingsman, save Arthur and a couple of rabidly child-free techs from the research department. His expression changed a bit when he followed her into Harry’s office, and she could see the deeply conflicted feelings passing over his face when her cries hit his ears and the smell hit his nose. Brave super-secret elite spy that he was, he stayed hovering in the door way, swinging the door back and forth to help circulate the air.

Eggsy flipped the changing pad out and onto Harry’s desk, then laid out wipes, ointment, and clean diaper efficiently beside it. Face set in the grim expression of determination that he wore when defusing a bomb, Harry laid the screaming baby on it and undressed her. They both gagged when he opened the diaper. Even Percival at the door had to swallow hard. Working in tandem, Harry and Eggsy got her cleaned off, covered in ointment, and in a fresh diaper. As Harry redressed her, Eggsy bagged the soiled diaper into the bin liner of his small trash can and tied it off. Percival held out his hands to catch it when she tossed it, and disappeared, hopefully to take it to be incinerated.

A bit calmer now that she was clean, Daisy seemed ready to allow Harry to soothe her fully to sleep. “Someday,” Harry mused, “she will bring home a love interest, and I shall have no choice but to describe this incident. A bit cruel, perhaps, but an utterly deserved revenge.”

Eggsy snorted. “Love, you know how you get after curry. Don’t go castin’ stones, yeah?”

“I,” he said loftily, “am a fullgrown adult male. I am _expected_ to produce such odors from time to time. She is a dainty little thing that could fit in a shoe box. She should not be able to clear a room!” He pointed a finger at her. “Besides, it isn’t as though you smell of roses all the time either.”

Laughing, she found Daisy’s blanket and handed it over so she could be swaddled tight like she liked for sleeping, then stretched along the couch under the window to watch Harry pace as he lulled her to sleep. When she was completely out, he joined Eggsy on the couch, deftly handing Daisy over so he could hold both of them at the same time.

Percival returned a bit later, towing an exhausted and frazzled James in his wake. Percival shoved James into a leather armchair and poured him a stiff drink. James blinked at the three of them owlishly then tossed the forty year old scotch back like it was a shot. “Arthur,” he said numbly, “wishes me to investigate the celebrities that have been going missing.”

All the adults in the room stared at him. Harry was between missions. Percival’s was on a slow burn as he cultivated an informant. Eggsy had been tagged by Merlin to help with training. Any one of them was free enough to take on something, so it was just Arthur’s continuing pettiness that had him assigning this to the one agent that was most in need of a period of downtime. “Right,” Eggsy said firmly. “Perc, you mind getting a start on the research? Put together whatever you can find out. Harry, since we all know you’re gonna end up on paperwork for the foreseeable future, you’s got the baby. James, you’re going back to your office to sleep, yeah? I know you brought Dais in to give mum a quiet day o’ rest, but you need sleep too. I’ll head to yours an’ see what I can do about giving the place a good clean an’ getting’ some proper food made up. When I get back, we’ll **all** be helping out on this one. I’ve had about enough of his shite, an’ there’s no reason we can’t do this as a team an’ wrap it up quick.”

“Oh, Eggsy, I can’t ask –“ James started to protest.

“Who was askin’? I do believe I just told. We got this. ‘S what family does, not that Arthur knows the meanin’ o’ the word. Now go. Dais is sleepin’ just fine here. You can peek in on her when you’ve had a sleep.” She wagged a finger at him. “I can get Merlin to make it a medical order if you like.”

“Oh dear god, don’t do that! he’ll have me sedated and strapped to bed before I can blink!” Cowed, and frankly just too tired to argue with someone that had gotten more than two hours sleep in the last three days, James got up and shuffled blearily out of the room.

Percival watched him go and shook his head. “Arthur is getting out of hand,” he said somberly. “It’s fortunate that Merlin is in charge of assignments normally, or I shudder to think what he’d have had you and Roxy working on the last few years. The recruits this time out are utterly ridiculous, thanks to his ‘guidelines’, and now this? I’m not convinced the missing celebrities are even something for Kingsman to look into, but even so, James should be on leave with the wee one in the house.”

“He’s super old, though,” Eggsy pointed out. “He’s gotta kick it sooner or later, yeah?”

Percival grimaced. “I doubt we’ll be so lucky. Regardless, I’m sure he’ll be less than delighted by the team effort.”

Harry stirred, tightening his arms around her. “He can hardly protest about Kingsman assisting each other. We have always done so and forbidding such a thing would likely cause an open mutiny. Most of us are fairly close to it already, just from his general poor attitude the last few years. The guidelines, as he called them, very nearly tipped us over that edge. Look at what Merlin is having to deal with already! Our brothers found the absolute worst examples of the ‘correct sort’ to propose as protest. Do you know, they’ve all been convinced that Eggsy is either a personal assistant, a spoiled child, or the Kingsman whore? Merlin had her kick their arses today and they were still convinced that she was either James’ daughter or my mistress and had been taught to fight for that reason. They could not conceive of her being an agent.”

 Percival rolled his eyes. “I’d heard a couple of those myself. I can’t fathom why they think Kingsman would keep a courtesan on staff! What organization does that, outside of terrible porn parodies?”

Eggsy patted Harry’s leg comfortingly. “It was probably wishful thinking. But you should warn Roxy when you get the chance. She’s got the accent that’d have them tryin’ to date her.” She slithered out of Harry’s arms a tad regretfully and passed Daisy back to him. “I’m gonna go look in on mum an’ see about takin’ care of things there. Try not to punch Arthur when he assigns you a month of paperwork for breakin’ Ginger.” Percival looked interested while Harry simply looked smug. She supposed she had to give him one – it wasn’t often he got to come to her defense, after all. It had probably soothed that bit of caveman that he usually kept so tightly leashed.


	2. Chapter 2

She took the train back to London and grabbed a taxi to the big house James and her mum now shared. It had changed a lot since the first time she’d seen it. Before it had been aggressively, if stylishly, masculine. Now, the expensive art was mostly gone, replaced by family photos and some paintings Eggsy had done for them over the years. The fancy furniture had been replaced with big, squashy stuff that was both comfortable and built to withstand children.

It was also, she saw when she let herself in, a bit of a mess. Laundry was in various stages of completion, colorful infant toys were strewn about, there was a near to overflowing bin of diapers and used wipes stinking up the laundry room, and dishes hadn’t been done in a couple of days. Daisy’s bout of illness had not been kind to her poor parents, neither of whom could sleep if the baby wasn’t. in theory, they tried to take it in shifts, but James was too much the worrywart to sleep through Michelle tending to the baby, and Michelle tended to try to take the brunt of the caring so that James could rest. Currently, her mother was passed out on the couch underneath a pile of partly folded baby clothes.

Since her mother was already sleeping, Eggsy left her to it. She didn’t bother with trying to be silent, since the volume of her snoring indicated she was nearly comatose. She just tackled the stinky bin first, then moved on to cleaning up the kitchen. A check of the cupboards and fridge showed that she’d have to do a shop to be able to make anything worth eating. She set the next load of laundry going, grabbed her mum’s keys, and made a run to the store. By the time she got back it was time to switch loads. Then she threw together a casserole that she could split up and freeze in serving sized portions before going to check on the loos. They weren’t terrible – neither James nor her mother were anything like the pigs that Dean and his lot had been, but they still benefited from a good scrub.

She hummed quietly as she worked, slowly setting the house to rights. By the time her mother woke, it was almost supper time, and all but the pile of clothes she’d been sleeping under had been cleaned and tidied away. Eggsy heard her stirring from where she was finishing a spaghetti sauce, so she put some noodles on to cook and turned on the kettle. Her mother blinked at her in confusion when she walked in. “Babes? What are you – were we supposed t’ have dinner or somethin’ tonight?”

“We didn’t have plans, mum,” Eggsy assured her. “James mentioned how sick Dais has been an’ how you was both run ragged. Our boss gave him a new assignment, so I popped down to give you a hand. Harry’s watching Daisy.” She clucked a bit as she finally gathered the half-folded baby things from her mother, neatly folding them and stacking them on the table to be put away later.

Michelle rubbed her face, looking ready to cry. “It’s been a long few days. Is he – gonna have to fly out to meet a client?” she asked apprehensively.

“Dunno,” Eggsy said with forced cheer. “But if he is, we’ll help. He belongs at home, an’ ain’t nothing on mine or Harry’s plate that says we can’t manage it for him. The boss’ll have to just lump it. Now c’mon, got dinner just about ready for you.”

Michelle finally looked around and a couple tears spilled over. “Oh fuck. I can’t believe I fell asleep! There was so much to get caught up on.”

“Mum.” Eggsy tugged her to her feet for a hug. “It’s taken care of, yeah? Happy to help. You know we love watchin’ Daisy whenever we can, even if she does have poops that could be used as a method of torture right now.”

“You was the same when you was a baby. Get a bit of a cold an’ you turned toxic.” Michelle grinned a watery sort of grin. She still hadn’t completely gotten over the hormonal surges of pregnancy, and her exhaustion wasn’t helping with it. “Your dad was near to pukin’ a couple o’ times.” She clicked her family ring against the newer necklace that held stones for her, James, Eggsy, and Daisy. “God, babes, I feel like such a mess! I quite workin’ so I could stay home with the baby while James was workin’, an’ I can’t even do that without help.”

“I dunno, mum,” Eggsy said conversationally. “Seems to me, lookin’ after a tiny helpless human who can’t say what she needs is a job and a half on a good day. Like I told James, we’s family, and this is what family does. Now,” she pushed her mother into a seat at the table, “you relax and have a decent meal. Noodles should be done in a couple more minutes, an’ I bought those garlic breadsticks from the bakery you like to go with.”

Eggsy got dinner on the table for both of them and ate in companionable silence with her mother. When they’d finished, she shooed Michelle up to have a long hot bath while Eggsy cleared the table. With her mother out of ear shot, she called Harry. “How was it the rest of the day?” she asked.

“Predictable,” Harry told her. “Arthur attempted to chew me out for breaking the little swine, I gave zero fucks, and I am now piled under paperwork for the next month. James slept for about five hours solid, and we’re all on our way back on the train. You?”

“Productive. Got the house cleaned up an’ managed to make enough food for them for a month, long as they can remember how to defrost and reheat. Mum slept through most of it. I’ll get fresh noodles on for you an’ James an’ keep the sauce warm til you get here.”

“James may be tempted to kiss you, fair warning. I’m told there may have been rather a lot of takeaway for them the last couple of weeks.”

“I don’t doubt it – I saw the state of the kitchen. It wasn’t pretty.”

“The train has arrived. We’ll be there shortly, darling.”

Eggsy blew a kiss into the phone and hung up, then put the noodles on to boil. After giving the sauce a quick stir to make sure it wouldn’t burn at the bottom, she trotted upstairs to check on her mother.

Michelle was practically floating in the tub, with bubbles mounded up so high all that could be seen of her was her face. “Feeling a bit better, mum?”

“Loads,” Michelle agreed a bit dreamily. Eggsy smiled, satisfied, and dug a towel out of the closet, as Michelle had apparently forgotten.

“James an’ Harry will be here soon with Daisy. You just keep relaxin’, yeah, I’ll get ‘em fed up an’ all, so don’t mind the ruckus.” Michelle waved a languid hand in acknowledgement and closed her eyes. Chuckling a bit, Eggsy went down to wait.

When James and Harry arrived with Daisy cooing happily in her father’s arms, she was pleased to see that James looked less frazzled. Well, except for the way his hair was sticking up in the back, but that was clearly bedhead, which meant he’d slept so it didn’t count. She pounced on her sister, kissing her cheeks and making faces to make the baby laugh while Harry got their dinner dished up. James fell on the plate of spaghetti like a starving wolf on a fresh kill, and Eggsy honestly wondered if he’d bite Harry should Harry’s hand move too close to his plate. Harry seemed concerned for the same thing and prudently scooted a few inches further away. Finally, James washed down the last bite and sat back, manners returning as he covered his mouth to belch discreetly. “Oh goodness, that was fantastic. Eggsy dear, you are a lifesaver.”

“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” she told him, amused. “Now, mum’s having a bath. There’s leftovers in the fridge, an’ I got more food made in the freezer so all’s you gotta do is heat it up.” She moved to clear the dishes, keen to keep things as picked up as possible until both adults were back on top of their game. Harry waved her off to do it himself, squeezing James’ shoulder on his way past. Eggsy was a bit less gentle, and gave him a smack upside the head – lightly, since he couldn’t afford the brain damage. “Don’t leave it so long next time, wanker. There’s plenty o’ hands to help if you’d just _say_. I expect to keep seein’ Daisy until you’s are back on a proper schedule. Go have a wash an’ check on mum while we finish up here.” Hands help up in surrender, James meekly slunk out of the room to do as he’d been told.

Eggsy tickled Daisy’s feet as she leaned against the counter, watching Harry wash the dishes. Harry raised an eyebrow at her. “Thomas was asking this afternoon if we were thinking of having one of our own,” he commented, looking pointedly at the baby in her arms.

Eggsy froze, eyes wide. “Wait – what? Um. Is that – do you _want_ kids?” She looked down at Daisy, trying to picture having a tiny baby with Harry’s eyes.

“It has never been a particular goal of mine, no. I do believe he thinks we’ve got ‘baby fever’, however. Do you want kids? We’ve never really discussed it.”

“Well…..” She jiggled Daisy a bit. She certainly enjoyed fussing over her little sister every chance she got, but having kids of her own? That wouldn’t work so well with their job, not when there were times that she and Harry were both too caught up in a case to be home, not when they were both in danger so often. “I never really did, t’be honest. If it happened, we’d deal with it, but I ain’t looking to _make_ it happen, if you get me.”

“Thank goodness.” Harry shut off the water and dried his hands. He easily folded Eggsy into his arms, kissing the top of her head. “I was hoping you’d say that. I’m not looking to retire anytime soon, and I know you aren’t either.”

“Mmm.” She tilted her face up for a proper kiss, giving a sharp little nip to his bottom lip when they finally parted. “Don’t mean we shouldn’t practice an’ all. In case we change our mind.”

“Excellent thinking, darling. Wouldn’t do to decide we’d like one and not recall how to go about making one,” he agreed, bending to nibble her neck. Eggsy shivered. “Perhaps Miss Daisy should be given back to her doting parents so we can go do that.”

“Oh, for goodness sake!” Michelle, laughing, walked into the kitchen. “The pair of you are like ruddy teenagers, I swear!” She reached out to take Daisy, easily settling her daughter against her chest. “Go home, both of you. Before you do anything I don’t wanna see in my kitchen.”

Harry pinked up just slightly round the ears but Eggsy grinned. “Sure thing, mum! Bye, Dais, big sis’ll see you tomorrow. Say g’night to James for us.” Eggsy kissed her mother on the cheek then grabbed Harry’s hand to drag his very willing self out of the house. Harry seemed extra affectionate on the walk home, arm around her waist the whole time, pausing for a kiss every few meters.

By the time they got home, she was too distracted for more than a quick pat hello to JB, and Harry most certainly was not in the mood for anything else. He pulled her in for a hungry kiss, hands on her rear to grind their pelvises together so she could feel the hard, urgent length of him against her. She wrapped her legs around his waist at his urging, thrilling to the strength of him when he carried her easily up the stairs. When he got them to their bedroom he proceeded to take her apart, lips, fingers, and tongue working over her body until she was a panting sweat-soaked puddle on the bed. By the time he found his own release inside her, she could hardly move. Harry was curled over and around her, one arm under her back and the other over her head. It was the type of sex that usually happened when there had been a near miss on a mission and as wrung out as she was, she was still a trifle concerned as to what spurred it on. “Alright, love?” she asked, nuzzling into his sweaty neck.

“Quite, darling. I simply – needed to feel you,” he sighed, shifting his hips where they were still joined together. “After the way that lout tried to reduce you – us – to something so base.” He snarled a little against her neck, wordless and clutching her tighter. “I should have broken his jaw _first_.”

Eggsy summoned the energy to tighten her limbs around him. From the beginning, Harry had wanted to take care of her, even while recognizing her own ability to manage the job on her own. Her own natural independence caused a bit of conflict for him, as he was fiercely proud of her and all she was able to do, while at the same time wanting to practically smother her under his care. Their date nights sometimes helped with that, as dressing up and going out somewhere fancy meant that he was almost obliged to obey the traditional gender roles and dote on her, taking her coat and pulling out her chair and such. Clearly it wasn’t quite enough and she wondered guiltily if she had been hurting him by not allowing him to take care of her more. “Harry. My love. My Harry.” With each word, she pressed a kiss to damp skin until he turned his head to meet her mouth with his own. She carded her fingers through his hair, keeping his head in place so she could kiss him as fiercely as she possibly could. Incredibly, she could feel him growing hard inside her again and moaned, rocking her hips and clenching her muscles to encourage him. She pulled his head up, fighting against his desire to keep kissing her. “Do you know,” she panted, angling to meet his eyes seriously, “why I don’t give a fuck what tossers like that say or think?” He shook his head mutely. “It’s cause of you, love. Because you ain’t ever made me feel anything less than loved. From the first, I knew I could trust you, an’ every single day since we met, you have found a million different ways to show me how much you care, how much you believe in me. Your touch has always made me feel cherished, love, an’ that’s something those morons will never understand. They just don’t matter. The only one that matters is you.” He shuddered and kissed her again, taking her mouth as his cock took her body. She mewled and hitched her knees up higher and held on as he took her apart all over again.

Later, when he started to fuss over her aching limbs and darker than usual love bites, she dismissed her initial, habitual reaction of shrugging it all off and instead requested a bath. Something fierce and tender lit in his eyes. He pressed a kiss to her knuckles and strode towards the bathroom. Part of her had always felt a bit of a burden when he’d fussed over her in the past. She’d never been able to allow it for too long before twisting it about to take care of him. This time when he returned, bath water filling the tub at no doubt the perfect temperature, she simply raised her arms rather than sliding out of bed to walk on her own. He lifted her as tenderly as he ever did Daisy and carried her into the bathroom. At her urging, he climbed in with her, settling with her cradled between his legs and against his chest. His hands washed her, rinsing the sex sweat from her body, gentle as he washed away the come mixed with her own juices from between her legs. He combed her tangled hair out until it floated in the water, tangles teased out.

When the water cooled, he climbed out and dried himself off briskly, uncaring. When he turned to her with a fresh towel she was wrapped up and patted dry. He saw with her in his lap on the closed toilet, brushing her hair out until it was dry and shining. Finally he tipped her head back to lay butterfly soft kisses on her bruised lips. “Thank you,” he breathed.

“I love you. I’m sorry I been holding this back from you,” she whispered back. “Was never about you. You know that, yeah?”

“I do, my darling,” he assured her. “You are so strong, love, so independent, and I would want you no other way.”

“Lettin’ you take care of me don’t change that. I **do** know that, Harry. An’ it feels good,” she admitted. “Take me to bed? I just wanna lay with you, feel you all around me.”

“My little love, it would be my absolute pleasure.” Harry carried her to the bed. He had to shoo JB down for a few minutes while he straightened the bedding, discarding the decorative throw that had born the brunt of the damage from their lovemaking while she sat on the chair in the corner. When he finally tucked her into bed, she curled up in the curve of his body with JB snug against her belly. His long arms held them both. “Remind me t’check JB’s feeder in the morning,” she mumbled, head already growing heavy with sleep.

“Of course, sweet girl.”


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning found Eggsy feeling…not clingy, exactly, but certainly even more tactile than usual. Neither of them had ever been particularly restrained when it came to physical affection. But she felt loose, and mellow, and soft, and wanted nothing more than to curl on his lap all day rather than head in to HQ. Neither of them were the type to shirk, however, so head in they did, this time with JB trotting alongside. They held hands in the taxi and again on the train, only parting when she had to head down to meet Merlin and the trainees and Harry had to head up to his office and the paperwork to wait for James to bring Daisy. 

The trainees were lined up in the classroom, puppies laying with halfway decent discipline at their feet. Eggsy bent over the clipboard as Merlin talked over the training schedule with her, detailing the areas that he wanted her to help him train them on. The trainees, apparently unaware of how acoustics worked, whispered to each other as they waited. Eggsy mostly tuned it out, until one whisper caught her attention: “What do you suppose a fine bird like that is doing with an old perv like Galahad? Think he’s got something on her?”

Oh. Well then.  **Now** she rather understood. When their insults had revolved around her, they had been easily ignored. But to insult Harry? She turned abruptly, every last trace of the morning’s soft mellowness gone. The guilty party was easily spotted, as he was the one that back up a step when her gaze swept over them. She crossed the room in a few strides, tuning out Merlin’s cursing behind her. She grabbed his wrist and twisted, spinning him around to kick his knees out from under him. When she had him on his face on the floor, she knelt with a knee at the small of his back, arm rotated up behind him until he could truly feel how close he was to having his shoulder dislocated. “You best watch your filthy mouth,” she snapped. “You are not  **fit**  to lick his  **shoes**. If I hear you saying one more thing about him, I  **will**  cut your tongue out of your mouth and feed it to the dogs. Tell me you understand.”

“I understand!”

“Tell me you’re sorry.”

“I’m sorry!”

She glared at the rest of them. “That goes for the lot of you. You’ve all been walking around here like you think you’re the best. The cream of the bloody crop. You ain’t shit. Kingsman was founded to uphold the peace and protect the innocent. Not so you could swan about driving cars too fast and playing with gadgets and lord it over others like your shit don’t stink. If you can’t get that through your thick fucking skulls, then do us all the favor and leave. Don’t waste my time or Merlin’s with trying to make something out of you. You get me?”

“Yes, ma’am!” they chorused. 

With a final, painful squeeze to the wrist she held, she let go and stood up. The boy climbed painfully to his feet, wrist held in front of him while he rubbed the forming bruise on his back. His face was flushed with humiliation and he refused to make eye contact. 

Merlin eyed them all with a critical glare. “Since yesterday’s debacle hasn’t seemed to cure you of your penchant for useless gossip, I can only assume you have far too much energy. Gear up, children. You’ll run until I feel you can pay attention. Full packs now, can’t have you going soft.”

Wisely stifling any protests or groans they may have wanted to let out, they shuffled out to change. “I expected a bit better restraint from you, Eggsy,” Merlin said reproachfully.

“I been restrainin’ myself for three fuckin’ months, bruv. But I ain’t havin’ them talkin’ like that ‘bout Harry,” she said flatly. “Besides, what’re you bitching for? I didn’t break his arm, even though I damned well wanted to!”

“You’ve gotten as bad as Harry is,” he grumbled.

“That’s a fuckin’ compliment, mate. Cheers.” She walked out, head held high. The little bastards were in for the run of their lives with her watching and ‘cheering’ them on. 

By lunch time, she and Merlin had run the recruits until they were near to dropping. Two of them had vomited. She was whistling when she climbed the stairs to join Harry in his office for lunch. Her love was sat at his desk with Daisy strapped to his chest in a sling. He was frowning at the file in his hands, not seeming to notice the covered tray the catering staff had left for them. He looked up and smiled automatically when she came in. “How did it go?” he asked, dropping the file.

Eggsy rolled her eyes. “You’ll be happy to know that the tone of their gossip has changed. Now, it seems, they can’t think what a bird like me is doing with an old perv like you.” She scowled again at the memory. “We ran the little sods until they dropped.”

His eyebrows went up and he chuckled. “At least they’re starting to ask better questions. I’ve often wondered what you’re doing with an old pervert like me.”

“Don’t do that,” she said heatedly. “Just don’t, Harry!”

With a frown, he stood and rounded his desk to pull her close. “I was teasing, darling. They’ve been saying much worse –“

“Yeah, ‘bout  **me**. That was easy to ignore. I ain’t havin’ them badmouth you. You’s worth a thousand of any one of ‘em. More!” His face cleared in understanding and he pressed a light kiss to her lips. 

“Did you break any of them?”

She sniffed. “No. It was a near thing, though. Only thing that held me back is Arthur woulda pulled me off of helping with the trainin’, and I wanna make sure I’m there every single step of the way. Only two of ‘em puked. I’m betting I can up that number with the next run. Every one of ‘em is gonna regret even thinkin’ any such thing. If I ain’t got ‘em grovelin’ an’ beggin’ for a break inside of a week, I’ll eat my bloody shoes.”

“Not your oxfords, darling. Mind the blade, hmm?” He guided her over to the desk where the tray sat. They sat and tucked in, Harry deftly guiding the simple soup and sandwich to his mouth without dripping or getting crumbs on Daisy. 

Eggsy nodded at the file that he’d been reading when she arrived. “So what’s that then? Had you frowning pretty good when I got here.”

Harry shot a quick glance at it. “I’m not entirely sure, to be honest. Arthur wasn’t specific on what paperwork he wanted me to deal with, so I had records send up agent financials for the last few months. Something a bit different than reviewing the same old mission files again,” he said dryly. 

“Something weird in ‘em?”

“Some recent charitable donations that I found unexpected. I doubt it’s anything significant. What’s on the agenda for the recruits this afternoon?”

“Merlin wants me to try teachin’ a bit of sleight of hand. Not sure how well those ham fisted morons will do, but it comes in handy so it’s worth a shot.” They chatted a while longer about the upcoming training schedule until it was time for her to meet Merlin and the trainees back in the classroom. She gave him a lingering kiss goodbye, brushed fingers over Daisy’s cheek as the little girl made suckling motions in her sleep, and strode off for another few hours with some of the most frustrating men she’d ever met.

The looks on some of the faces when the recruits were told what they’d be learning that afternoon spoke volumes about their opinion of the lesson. Eggsy wandered amongst them, gesturing as she spoke, explaining the benefits of being able to slip things out of – or into – a target’s pockets. She finished her explanation at the front of the room beside Merlin. “Now then, if you’re still unconvinced, I would ask that you each check your pockets.” More than a bit amused, she watched half of them pull a simple steel washer out of their front trouser pockets. She pulled a bunch of watches out of hers and handed them back. “Now then. A bit of sleight of hand can be very useful. You need the mobile of a target? Do a lift. You need to get a tracker on someone? Slip it into their trouser pocket. I have planted dozens of bugs and trackers on people without them every being aware. It’s helpful, of course, that our tech is incredibly small and able to stick to almost any surface, so it can be planted on the underside of a tie or lapel, somewhere it’s highly unlikely to ever be spotted. Part of the technique is, of course, distraction – if their eyes are on somethin’ else, they ain’t watchin’ where your hand is. Simple enough in theory, not easy in practice. Can save you breakin’ in somewhere if you can just tag someone that belongs inside already. Split into pairs an’ we’ll start. Merlin, we’s a man shy, so if you’d partner the odd man for the moment, that’d be aces. Thanks.” Merlin gave her a speaking look but obliged. Eggsy spent the rest of the frankly frustrating afternoon attempting to beat the basics of sleight of hand into their skulls and fingers. Two out of the whole lot showed improvement by the time the day and her patience was at an end. “You’ve all got the washers. I want you to keep ‘em on you at all times. They’s all engraved with a number so no point in fibbing ‘bout things, but you should be practicing whenever you get the chance. Try,” she stressed, “to avoid doin’ anything so foolish as sneakin’ ‘em out of each other’s pockets while you’s in the shower or somethin’, yeah? Ain’t no points in fakin’ you can do somethin’ you can’t do again.”

“Tomorrow morning you’ll have weapons. Tomorrow afternoon you get to meet the obstacle course. If you’re lucky, Gareth will agree to a demonstration. Dismissed,” Merlin ordered.

They watched the boys file out, some of them shaking out slightly cramped fingers. “Bit soon, innit? You really want me t’run it or just sit back an’ make scathin’ comments?” she asked when the door shut behind them. 

“Eggsy, I want you to run it faster than you ever have before. If even one of them can come close to your time, they may be worth taking a closer look at. The only one faster than you is Harry, and at that, his time only improved to that level when you taught him that parkour stuff.” Merlin grinned, suddenly. “There’s the added bonus of it driving Harry nuts. I’m sure he’ll feel it necessary to try to match or beat your speed.”

“You’re a bad man, Merlin,” Eggsy laughed. 

Harry was more than ready to leave when Eggsy reached his office. James had already picked Daisy up. She was almost entirely over the bug that had played havoc with the new parents, and Harry regretfully informed her that James was unlikely to bring her back the next day. Eggsy gleefully told him about the obstacle course and Merlin’s wish for her to break Harry’s record. A brief look of consternation flashed over Harry’s face and she laughed at him as she playfully tugged his lapel. “He said you’d want to meet or beat my speed if I did.”

Harry attempted to look annoyed. “Honestly, I am not so competitive that I cannot handle someone else beating a record I've set. I would be quite proud of you, darling.”

“Sure - but you’d also wanna run it again yourself. Which,” she added pointedly, “is all the reason I need.”

He laughed as they settled into their seats on the train. “You and those trousers.”

Eggsy wagged her finger at him. “They almost cost me on my final hand to hand test. That was a dirty fuckin’ trick, Harry.”

“Hardly intentional, darling,” he protested. She narrowed her eyes at him until his lips twitched up into a smug smile. “Well, perhaps more hopeful than intentional.”

“I knew it! You owe me, Harry.”

He raised his eyebrows at her. “I hardly think so, darling. The point was to give you a real challenge.”

“Oh bollocks, that’s not a fair bit of challenge, that was cheatin’. Not like I'm gonna go up against anyone else that’ll distract me like that,” she scoffed. There was a flair of possessive heat in his eyes that had her licking her lips. “I really think you owe me, love.”

“Well.” Harry assumed a thoughtful pose. “Perhaps it was slightly unfair of me. I suppose I do rather owe you, darling, and a gentleman always honors his debts. What sort of reparation would you find suitable?”

She smiled, slow and lascivious, and leaned forward. “I think I’d like you to wear those trousers for me. Bit of a private show. I think I’d like my triumphant warrior to carry me off for a good old fashioned ravage.” Her smiled widened into a full grin as the heat in his eyes intensified. “Course, that’d be after he triumphed over the obstacle course – all sweaty an’ covered in mud.” Their bodies swayed as the train stopped to admit them onto the platform under the shop. Laughing, she sprang up out of the seat to dash for the lift, Harry hot on her heels.

He caught her on the lift and swung her around, pulling her close for a lingering kiss. “You are a dreadful tease, my love,” he muttered, kissing down her neck. “I can hardly carry you off at HQ, now can I?”

“Can’t see why not! The spare apartments upstairs got lockin’ doors, an’ I happen t’know that Merlin will be keepin’ the brats occupied between weapons an’ the course themselves.” 

“I’ll consider it,” Harry allowed, voice muffled against her neck. 

The next afternoon, right after lunch (which she had eaten sparingly – no point in impressing the little bastards with a brilliantly fast run only to puke out the other side) Eggsy stretched while the candidates got their first real look at the course. It was designed to be as physically demanding as possible and required strength, speed, agility, and incredible balance. Simply making it through the course without falling or ripping open ones own flesh on any of the bits with razor wire was an accomplishment. They would have to meet a minimum time requirement by the end of their training. Three compete failures, regardless of time, meant a wash out.

Eggsy had no wish for stitches, so she’d dressed for the course in combat fatigues of her own and a snug sports bra – one close call with an unwanted nipple piercing during her own training had been more than enough. As Merlin explained the requirements for both success and failure, she saw Harry strolling across the grounds, suit impeccable, hair neatly styled into place. She grinned, and then grinned even wider when the candidates noticed his presence and started to shift uneasily in place. With his sunglasses on and face deceptively bland, he looked quite intimidating to them. She knew, and Merlin likely did as well, that Harry was there to ogle her while also keeping an eye on her time lest he be forced to regain his record. The sunglasses let him do both while conveniently intimidating the recruits that he hadn’t hospitalized as of yet.

Merlin finished his spiel and Eggsy stepped up for her own brief words. “I’m gonna give you’s all a bit of advice. Don’t play the hero your first time out. You might think you got a handle on it just by lookin’, but once you’re in, it ain’t as easy as it looks.” With that, she stepped up to the start, gave Merlin a nod, and took off. She hadn’t been exaggerating. The bright side was, the course didn’t really change. It didn’t need to. It was a bitch and a half to get through taking your time – doing it at speed increased the challenge. Fortunately Eggsy, like Harry, enjoyed a challenge. When work kept her too tied up to allow for free running, she had a tendency to hit the course to blow off steam. Though she ended up covered in sweat and mud and her hands were a bit raw from grabbing onto rough brick and unfinished wood, she completed the course and knew just by the studious way Merlin wasn’t looking at Harry that she’d at least matched his best time. 

Harry, of course, beamed at her and picked up her towel for her. “Well done, dearest. Magnificent as always.” 

She wiped the sweat from her face and grinned at him. “Thanks, love. Think I beat my best time on that one,” she said slyly.

“In point of fact, Eggsy, you did. You also beat the previous record set by Galahad by two seconds,” Merlin informed her blandly. He turned to the recruits, dismissing Eggsy and Harry. 

Harry offered his arm to escort her back inside. When they were out of earshot of the recruits he leaned down to murmur, “My turn tomorrow morning, darling. Don’t get attached to that record of yours.”

“I was plannin’ to wear the green lace tomorrow – do a proper job of it an’ I’ll let you see,” she promised.

Merlin put a bit of a damper on their fun by bringing the candidates out to watch Harry’s run the next morning. There was a certain satisfaction in watching their faces as Harry tied her time, as they had looked a bit smug when the ‘old perv’ had begun the course. Since each one of them sported numerous cuts, scrapes, gouges, and bruises from their first efforts, they had no doubt been eager to see the old man put in his place. Though Harry was as inevitably sweaty and muddy as anyone else, he still finished with style and strolled back to the group with aplomb. Eggsy passed him his towel, glared at Merlin, and began the walk back to the manor. 

They had to wait until they rounded the house to begin the chase properly.


	4. Chapter 4

A week after their obstacle course fun, James knocked on her office door. “Eggsy, may I come in?”

“Of course, James. What’s up?”

“A bit of a problem. Michelle has come down with the same flu that Daisy had,” he said bluntly. “And I’ve also had a bit of a development with the missing persons. It seems a university lecturer has been taken. We’re tracking him via satellite. They seem to be taking him to Argentina, if they remain on their present course.”

“On it,” she assured him. “Is the plane ready?”

“It’s being readied as we speak. I know you despise snow, but with Harry still grounded and Percival’s informant finally making a move….” He spread his hands helplessly.

“No worries, bruv. I’ll pop down an’ let Harry know I’m off. You go home an’ take care of your ladies.”

James pulled her up into a hug. “Thank you, dear girl.”

“Eh, I was getting’ bored of helping train the kids anyway. Now shoo!”

“The file will be waiting on the plane.”

Eggsy trotted down the hall to Harry’s office. He was leaning back in his seat, scowling at the ceiling when she poked her head around the door. “Havin’ that much fun, love?”

He looked over with a smile. “The joys of paperwork,” he deadpanned.

“I’m off to South America, apparently. Mum is sick but there’s a bit of a break in James’ case. I’m off to rescue a lecturer.” She grimaced. “Argentina, from the looks of it. There’s places to go skiing already in Argentina, you know. Snow.”

Harry let out a laugh at that and stood up. He pulled her in for a brief kiss. “You shan’t have to traipse through it in sandals, darling. There’s proper cold weather gear on the planes. Besides, what are the odds that they will take him that high up in the mountains?”

“Worse before you said that,” she said promptly. “Now you’ve gone an’ jinxed it.”

“Superstition, my darling.”

She glowered at him. “Yeah, but it’s true all the same.” He kissed her again, wiping away the glare. She nodded at the files. “If they’s pissing you off that much, take ‘em to Merlin. You don’t get this worked up over nothin’.”

“Soon. Off you go, and be careful.”

“Always am!” With a final kiss, she left him to work on the files while she traipsed off for a daring rescue.

A few hours later, she tapped her glasses, opening the feed to Merlin. “Tell Galahad he jinxed me proper, would you, bruv?” she said, glaring at the pristine white snow that blanketed the ground under the plane. They were a couple miles away from the large, privately owned ski lodge that the satellite had tracked the professor to.

“Noted,” Merlin said dryly.

Eggsy finished tucking her hair under the warm hat and settled the goggles over her eyes. Then she twisted the handle of snow mobile, mostly just to hear the insanely quiet engine rev a bit. With a final wave to the pilot she was off. She was thankful to their tech people – the goggles really reduced the glare off of the snow, and the quiet engine meant that she could get quite close to the building without being heard. Her bright white snow gear kept her all but invisible against the background while also rated to keep her toasty in temperatures as low as -40. It was also wonderfully sleek and didn’t hamper movement at all.

When the building was in sight, she parked the snow mobile and moved in on foot. There were no external guards, but when she got close enough, the glasses picked up the frequency of an alarm system on the doors and windows. Heat signatures from inside showed six people, five downstairs and one upstairs, as well as what seemed a very healthy fire in the fireplace. She crept up to a big bay window and got a fast peek around the edge. The professor was tied to a chair in the middle of the room, while a bald, bearded man removed tape from his mouth. His movements were curiously gentle, which really piqued her interest. She dug out a listening device and stuck it to the glass to listen in.

“..get the 62 Dalmore,”

“Offering him a drink? What polite kidnappers,” Merlin observed.

“Shh!” Eggsy slipped to the side, out of sight of the windows, and scanned the building. It was easy enough to scale the outside to reach a second floor window. The room on the other side registered no heat signatures, so she carefully bypassed the security system, unlocked it, and slipped inside. The snow on her boots was something of an issue, as the melted puddles would give away the presence of another person. But better they melt off in an unoccupied room than leaving a trail in the hallway. The bug was transmitting nothing but idle pleasantries, which was still strange, but at least indicated there was no immediate threat to the professor. When the carpet had absorbed the worst of the moisture, she moved further into the room to listen at the door.

There were no sounds from outside, and again no heat signatures, so she risked cracking it open. The hallway was clear. Before she could make her move, however, the bug caught the sound of knocking, then footsteps. Further down the hall, another door swung open so Eggsy was forced to shut hers. The footsteps that sounded going by her doorway were very odd, and the heat signal even more so. Whoever it was seemed to have no body heat from just below the knees.

“Professor Arnold!” a vaguely familiar voice said cheerfully, with a slight lisp that she really thought she should recognize. “I do apologize for the dramatic way I brought you here. I have something extremely important to discuss with you, and I’m sure a man of your brilliance will understand why we went through all of this.”

“You’re clear,” Merlin told her. “Move. I’d like to see the boss.”

Eggsy cracked the door again and slipped out, all but crawling along the floor to stay low, thanks to the open balcony that looked down on the main room. In here, her bright white clothes were no camouflage, but a beacon. With deft fingers, she pulled a second device out of her inner pocket. When a fast look showed that all parties below were focused on each other, she slid her hand over the edge and stuck the camera. “Good. Clear view,” Merlin confirmed. She slithered back and settled in to listen as Merlin linked the camera transmission to her glasses.

Down below, five bald men dressed in black hung around the edges of the room, clearly guarding. Arnold still sat in his chair, though he had been untied to allow him to drink his whisky. A woman with long, straight black hair stood deferentially behind and to the side of the recent arrival, and the bladed prosthetics on her legs explained her odd heat signature. The new person, the boss, stood with a really poofy parka on. As she watched, he slid the hood down to beam at the professor like they were old friends. In her ear, Merlin swore in astonishment as Richmond Valentine’s face was revealed to them.

While Eggsy laid on their upstairs balcony floor, Valentine proceeded to sit and talk about how humanity was a virus that mother nature was getting ready to wipe out. He talked about the environmental damage that had already been done, how the population had already reached a point of unsustainability, and how there were no restrictions or laws that could be put into effect in any sort of timely manner that would make a difference anymore. Arnold nodded along with him, clearly in agreement. Then Valentine said something that made her grow cold.

“The only hope we have is a cull. A massive decrease in the human population, with a small, select group remaining to go forward. The best and brightest, to rebuild society right! A society that is sustainable, where no one starves for lack of food or dies of disease from lack of basic health care. I need you as part of that new society, Professor. A man of your vision will be instrumental in creating a better world for humanity.”

Arnold visibly gulped, looking shaken but also, sickeningly, intrigued. “A cull. I mean, yes, that could certainly work. A significant decrease in the human population would take the pressure off the planet, allow it to recover. But how could such a thing happen? Even the worst estimates of a pandemic don’t show a high enough mortality rate to do more than slightly delay the inevitable. And war would, of course, do so much more damage than could be recovered from.”

“Don’t you worry about that,” Valentine assured him. “I have that covered. Just tell me this: do you agree to help rebuild society, Professor Arnold?”

Arnold looked slightly sick, staring into Valentine’s eyes. Then slowly, that sickness faded to acceptance. “You can guarantee a cull without the use of chemical or nuclear weapons?” Valentine nodded. “Then yes. If such a thing can be arranged, I will help with the rebuilding.”

“Wonderful! I knew you’d agree,” Valentine beamed like a child on Christmas. “Now then.” And he moved on, talking about a chip, a bit of protection that would keep Arnold safe when the time came, the signal he would get so he would know to pack and wait for transport, and Eggsy rolled to the side and slipped back into the room and shut the door and hissed, “Can I kill them all now?”

“No. We don’t know what his plan is. If it’s something set to go off at a predetermined time, killing him could ruin our chances of finding out what it is. Get back here. Arnold obviously doesn’t need rescuing,” Merlin ordered.

“Fuck!” Eggsy choked down the murderous rage and did as she was told. As satisfying as it would be, Merlin was right. Until they knew what the actual plan was, they couldn’t afford to kill Valentine, and he was unlikely to just tell her.

It didn’t stop her from rather viciously hoping his plane exploded with all of them in it.

While she was flying back to Kingsman, the bugs picked up a little bit more. Valentine implanted the chip into Arnold’s neck, behind the ear. Then they all had dinner, chatted like old friends over drinks afterwards, and turned in late. Fortunately, it seemed as though whoever used the room Eggsy had entered by didn’t notice the damp carpet in front of the window. Or if they did, they either didn’t find it worthy of mention or mentioned it out of range of either the audio or video bugs. Unfortunately, at no point did Valentine give any hints as to his actual plan within range of them, either.

Harry, Merlin, and James were all waiting for her when her plane landed back in the hangar. “We need to talk,” Harry said grimly. He glanced around. “Away from Kingsman.” Her eyebrows went up but she nodded and fell into step with them.

They left HQ entirely, which was very unusual for Merlin, though the extremely late hour meant that very few would have a chance to notice. They remained silent through the trip back to the shop and the drive back home. Once inside, Merlin took a small device out of his pocket and turned it on. There seemed to be a brief, high pitched and barely audible whine, and the speakers on the telly and the radio sparked and smoked. The glasses still on her face sparked as well, prompting her to hiss and throw them off her face with a glare.

“Sorry, Eggsy,” he apologized. “It’s a counter-measure to listening devices. Anything that can send or receive audio burns out.”

“An’ you think our house might be bugged?” she hissed. She stooped and picked up JB, cuddling him protectively close.

“Based on the lack of scorch marks anywhere, probably not, though I’m in no mood to take chances. Harry?”

Harry passed around drinks and gestured to chairs. “As you know, I’ve been on paperwork for the last few weeks after the unfortunate training mishap,” he began. In spite of her simmering rage and the seriousness of the situation, Eggsy snorted. He dropped his hand to squeeze her knee and continued. “Arthur gave no instructions as to which records I should be reviewing, so I chose to review everyone’s financials. It’s fortunate that I did so. As you all know, every purchase or other financial transaction we make is recorded. It’s automatic and was arranged as a way to monitor personnel against potential bribes or extortion, and such records are filed without ever really being reviewed anymore. It’s mostly digital anyway, with monthly summaries printed off and filed as a matter of course. Honestly, I doubt most of us really have cause to remember that little fact, so accustomed are we to it.”

Eggsy nodded thoughtfully. “True enough. It was a weird thought at first, but I don’t even think about it anymore. Haven’t for ages. Guess I figured if someone cared how much I spend on my knickers, let ‘em look.”

“So what did you find?” James asked, a trifle impatiently.

“I found some charitable donations that seemed out of character. I thought perhaps it was age, an impending sense of mortality catching up, but in light of our recent discovery it is extremely concerning. Arthur, Geraint, and Caradoc have been donating heavily in recent months to Valentine’s charity.”

Eggsy went cold. “That’s why we left Kingsman,” she breathed.

Harry nodded. “Right now, the only people I completely trust are in this room, save Percival and Tristan.”

James leaned forward in his seat, fingers linked around the glass in his hands. “Valentine has been taking celebrities, as well as government officials and a handful of other academics. Given that Arnold is being returned, I think it’s safe to say there have been more that have been taken and released – provided they agreed with his insanity. The ones still missing likely refused him. We have no way of knowing if they’re still alive or not, but we should operate as though they are. And we shall have to do so under the suspicion that our leader is a traitor, as well as at least two if not more of our peers.” He knocked back the scotch in his hand. “What a bloody mess.”

“That about sums it up,” Merlin agreed.

“I want a chat with Arnold when he’s returned,” Eggsy said. “Might be he got more out of Valentine on the trip back than what we heard. If nothin’ else, I’d like to get our hands on the chip in his neck. Supposed to protect him somehow. Merlin, if I can get it to you, think you can figure out what it’s to protect him _from_?”

“Possibly, if that was even the truth. It could also have been a ruse to allow Valentine to track his followers, but either way, it will tell me more about his systems.”

“James, you keep investigating,” Harry instructed. “Spin your wheels. I believe your current frazzled state is precisely the reason Arthur chose you for this. Enough high-profile persons have gone missing that at least a few of us had noticed and were considering investigating. If Arthur is indeed a traitor, putting you on the case, in his mind, kept him from looking suspicious by not allowing anyone to look into it. As you’ve been for the last few weeks, since Daisy got sick, you’ve not been at your best.”

For a moment, James looked affronted. Then he sighed and nodded. “I was furious over being assigned this case to begin with for exactly that reason. I can play decoy. I take it you want to make straight for the head of the snake?”

“Oh yes,” Harry agreed. He raised an eyebrow at Merlin. “I believe Henry Devere is going to become environmentally minded. Let’s get Valentine’s attention. I want to match Arthur’s donations, see how long it takes for Valentine to want to meet me.” He pursed his lips. “And I would very much like to do so off the books, if that can be arranged.”

Merlin looked briefly pained. “Honestly, Harry, you even have to ask?”

Harry grunted. “Good. In the meantime, we shall all play as though this meeting never happened. I’ll continue to review files, Eggsy will continue to assist with the trainees until Arnold has returned and settled back into his routine.”

Eggsy nodded as she chewed her lip thoughtfully. “I wonder if his new recruitment rules were another distraction? I mean, Kingsman’s been recruiting the same way since the beginnin’, yeah? Sure, he coulda made the rules when Kay decided to retire just to avoid havin’ another one like me get in, snobby old bastard. Or it coulda been on purpose. It was kinda predictable that we’d all be pissed an’ bring in the worst that could be found. It’s been keepin’ Merlin well distracted, ain’t it. An’ could be a plant in with ‘em. He got a proposal in this time?”

“Colin,” Merlin confirmed. “No relation to him this time, unlike Charlie, although as I understand it, Colin met Charlie at University during Charlie’s final year.”

Eggsy frowned. “Charlie shoulda graduated by now, even with the year off while we was candidates.”

“He didn’t return right away. Spent time out of the country in disgrace,” Merlin said.

“I woulda thought Chester had disowned him. He was pretty pissed over Charlie being a spineless twerp.”

“Charlie is his only grandson,” Harry told her. “He has a granddaughter as well, but I believe we are all well aware on his views about gender.”

Eggsy shook her head. “It’s a wonder any woman stayed with him long enough to breed.”

“That was a different time, with different expectations. His wife dutifully bore him a child and presented a proper face in society whilst the nanny raised said child. He was also acting as Bors at the time and would have been gone quite a lot.”

“That’d be the only way for the poor woman to manage it.”

“I’ll keep tabs on Arthur, Geraint, and Caradoc,” Merlin said, hauling them back on track. “And I’ll send the word if any of them drop off the grid.”

“It’s a plan,” Harry said, grimly holding his glass up for a mock toast.


	5. Chapter 5

Eggsy waited a week before looking into Arnold again. During that week, she continued to help train the recruits, though she kept an even closer eye on them than before. She hoped that most of them were just what they’d thought – the poor choices the agents had made as a way to protest Arthur’s stupid new rules. But she couldn’t help the suspicion she felt when she looked at Colin, nor the relief she felt when she found that the previously broken Eric, who had washed out by virtue of the fact that he couldn’t continue training while broken, was Caradoc’s proposal. A quiet blond who tended to be underwhelming and even mostly inoffensive, was Geraint’s choice. He didn’t seem to have much personality, and never once showed even a glimmer of promise the way Colin had.

Even with two in particular to watch, however, she kept her eye on all of them. She knew Merlin was as well, but the man also had all of the support staff to attempt to quietly vet, while also monitoring the movements of the probably rogue agents. He was good, but that was a lot, so she had no intention of relaxing her vigilance.

But she also had a job to do outside of that. With Arnold returned and back at teaching, it was time to pay him a visit. She waited in his lecture hall for him, studying to the work on the chalkboard with interest. She heard the door open and his cheery, bumbling professor voice greet her. She turned with a smile, hands clasped behind her back. “Hello! I had some questions about anthropogenic force, if you’ve a moment.”

His face lit up. Here she was, a pretty young woman, perky breasts pushed out and on display, and _also asking about his area of expertise_. It was more than likely a wet dream come true for him, and she let him ramble on for a couple minutes in explanation, gesturing at the chalkboard while she followed him around as though truly interested. When he turned to face her full on with his back to the teacher’s station, she beamed and snapped out a hand to grab him around the throat. She hooked her ankle around one of his to knock him off balance and pinned him to the teacher’s station. He was old, overweight, and had probably never engaged in anything more violent than killing a house fly. His flailing against her did nothing.

“You had a talk with Richmond Valentine not terribly long ago,” she said, still smiling. “I want to know what about.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“Bollocks. I showed up to rescue you and find you having drinks with your kidnapper. I want to know everything you spoke about!” She slapped him across the face. “Now!”

“I’m not supposed to say anything, please!” He writhed in her grip and she rolled her eyes.

“I barely touched you, honestly. This will get much worse unless –“ There was a weird, high pitched ringing and a flash of light. Something hit her face and her head swam. She staggered, fell against a table, reeling about as her head swam. Her partially blocked vision landed on two men dressed in black entering the room – guards maybe, insurance for Arnold, she didn’t know. Trouble, for certain. As blackness started to close around the edges of her vision, she had enough left in her to dip a hand into a pocket for the a lighter and toss it as she tossed herself gracelessly out a window. That was the last she knew.

~

“Harry, you need to get down here right now,” Merlin said urgently through his glasses. There was a strange note to his voice that Harry couldn’t recall ever having heard before. Fear instantly cramped his stomach and he was on his feet and racing down to the subfloors of the manor without thinking about it. James met him at the lift and traded a tense look as they both boarded it. It had never seemed to move so slowly before.

Merlin was waiting for them. “She’s alive,” he said, which was not as reassuring as he likely hoped it would be. He turned and led the way towards medical. “She went to meet Arnold today. I’m not sure what happened, she didn’t have her feed open to me. Her vitals went haywire. The extraction team brought her in. She had an unknown chemical on her face and she’s unconscious – comatose, rather. Arnold was dead, minus his head, inside his lecture hall, along with two other men. They still had their heads, though they were all in poor condition thanks to a grenade.” He threw open the door to one of the rooms and Harry pushed passed him.

Eggsy was lying in the bed. She had already been changed into a hospital gown and was hooked up monitors. Her heartbeat was reassuringly steady, and she didn’t require oxygen, which seemed positive. He walked over to take her hand and was astonished to see his own shaking. Her fingers were cool and limp. Harry wasn’t used to that. Even in her sleep, she always curled her fingers into his – always. He stroked her face, her hair, and there was no response. Her eyes didn’t move under the lids, her breathing didn’t change, there wasn’t even a blip on the heart monitor.

James stepped up to her other side and took her free hand. His face was grey and filled with guilt. “This is my fault,” he said lowly. “This should be me. It was my investigation, damn it. I should never have –“

“Shut up,” Harry said, low and a bit vicious. “Just shut up, James. Don’t you dare insult her like that, or I swear to god I will make you eat your damn teeth.” James shut his mouth so hard his teeth clacked. “It could as easily have been me. I could have gone to see the professor. Or Merlin. It doesn’t matter who – none of us would be pleased to see any of the rest of us here. What matters is what happened and how to fix it!” He turned to look at Merlin and wasn’t reassured by the look on his friend’s face.

“I have no idea, I’m afraid. Her coma has to be a result of whatever that substance was that was on her face. She’s got a small bump on her head, but it’s superficial – scans show no brain damage. Can you access her feed?”

“Yes.” He gestured for Merlin’s clipboard and typed in the absurdly long password that Eggsy used. He handed it back and Merlin tapped a bit, calling up the relevant footage. Harry took her hand again as they all turned to watch the screen on the wall. Harry felt his free hand clench when they were able to track Arnold’s gaze repeatedly to her chest, and the information on the screen showed an increase of respiration and heartrate that indicated arousal as the weedy little man expounded on his pet topic. He was glad when Eggsy apparently had enough and pinned the man roughly to the lecturer station and the man’s heartrate skyrocketed as Eggsy demanded to know everything Arnold and Valentine had spoken about. There was frantic, babbling denials and then a sound, very faintly. Then Arnold’s head exploded, the camera view was partially blocked but with enough left that they shared the dizzy, staggering spin she had done before throwing herself out the window.  

“That…explains the odd mess,” Merlin said, struggling and failing to sound matter of fact. “I thought perhaps a sniper bullet, but the…organic matter had gone in a full 360, rather than one direction.” He replayed the moments just prior to the head explosion and zoomed in to let them see the skin behind and beneath Arnold’s ear start to glow. “Whatever else that implant does, it’s also an explosive. Arnold was going to talk, that was obvious. Valentine blew off his head to prevent it. Eggsy is lucky it wasn’t a more traditional explosive or it might have taken off part of her hand as well.”

“I’m not so sure I would call her current state _lucky_ ,” Harry snapped.

“I would!” Merlin shot back. “I can’t identify whatever that chemical was, but there is no injury to her brain. She is physically sound. I have absolutely no reason to think that it is simply a matter of _time_ before she wakes up.” His face softened a fraction. “I would not lie about such a thing, Harry.”

Harry could only grunt in response. He dragged the room’s chair as close to the bed as he could get it and sat, taking her hand in his once again. He would wait right there until she woke up, and woe to _anyone_ who attempted to make him leave.

It was all too reminiscent of when they’d met, though at least she didn’t need assistance getting enough oxygen into her body this time. In a way, though, this was worse. In her fever, Eggsy had moaned and twitched and moved, and though the sounds she’d made had made him want to cough for her, they had all been signs of her life. Now she was just still in a way he had never seen her, utterly unresponsive to any stimuli. Only the continued beep of the heart monitor and the faint rise and fall of her chest showed she was not a corpse.

He wasn’t sure how long he sat there before a very unwelcome voice intruded.

“What was the girl up to when she got herself hurt?” Arthur demanded from just outside the room. A moment later the door opened to admit the old man, and Harry had to grit everything inside of him to keep from jumping up and breaking his sagging neck.

“She was checking out a lead for Lancelot,” Merlin said mildly, entering just behind him. “He had two pop up at the same time, so while he looked into the disappearance of Sir Elton, she went to speak with an academic that had gone missing but returned a few days later. We aren’t sure what happened. Her feed was going to her private server, and I have been unable as yet to get into it.”

Arthur stood at the foot of Eggsy’s bed, staring down at where Harry held her hand. There was the faintest sneer on his face that he attempted to conceal when he met Harry’s gaze. “Are you able to get into the girl’s server?”

“No. I do not have her password, as she does not have mine,” Harry told him, keeping his voice even by sheer force of will.

Arthur grunted and turned back to Merlin. “And Lancelot’s lead into Sir Elton’s disappearance?”

“Did not pan out. By all accounts, it appears to be unrelated to the other disappearances.”

“So a giant cock-up all around then.”

Harry couldn’t contain his glare, which would have been out of character for him even if he could have. “Since we have no way of knowing what happened until we get her feed, there’s no way of knowing **if** mistakes were made or not,” he snapped.

“The girl is hardly perfect, Galahad,” Arthur shot back.

“Nor have I ever claimed she was. She is, however, one of the best we have and you well know it, Arthur.”

“I know no such thing. Her performance has been adequate,” Arthur dismissed. He looked at Merlin. “I expect to be kept up to date. Send Lancelot to see me when he returns from wherever he’s gotten off to.”

“Of course, Arthur,” Merlin said neutrally. Arthur swept by him, unfazed by Harry’s murderous glare. “Easy, Harry,” Merlin warned.

Harry snorted his opinion of that, then asked, “Where is James, anyway?”

“He went to go inform Michelle that Eggsy is…indisposed. No details, of course, but he needed to tell her something.”

“Ah.” Harry said nothing more and resumed his vigil. He had sat and waited for days for a target to be within his sights, under far worse conditions than their medical rooms. It would take an army to move him from Eggsy’s side. Merlin, and indeed all of Kingsman, was well aware of this, and most didn’t even try.

The only exception was the one nurse that Eggsy didn’t like, Nancy. She came in and attempted to shoo Harry out. “Galahad, I need to get a catheter placed. It should only take a few minutes,” she said, gesturing at the door.

“No. Send one of the others. Eggsy does not wish to be under your care, and as she explained your callous treatment of her when she was first brought here, I cannot say that I blame her. You are not to have anything to do with her care during her stay here.”

The woman’s gaze hardened. “I am perfectly qualified –“

“Not after I break both of your hands, you won’t be. Send someone else. I,” he added, “am not in any mood to be polite.”

“I will have you removed,” she snapped. “You can’t interfere with patient care!”

“Since you don’t care about this particular patient, I can’t imagine why you’re so bothered. Nevertheless, you will not be touching her during her stay.”

“I am the senior nurse here –“

“Again, I must point out, not after I break both of your hands, you won’t be.”

The woman threw up her hands and stomped out of the room. A few minutes later Merlin and one of the other nurses entered. While the young woman folded up the blankets over Eggsy’s legs, Merlin drew him off to the side slightly. “Did you honestly threaten one of my nurses, Harry?”

“I most certainly did. Nancy behaved very poorly towards Eggsy during her first stay here, and I will not have her caring for Eggsy this time,” he said firmly. “Don’t test me on this, Merlin.”

“Odd, that. She is the only one Arthur will permit to attend him. I believe they may be somewhat likeminded on certain topics. I’ll make sure she’s off Eggsy’s care team. Just please, don’t break her hands,” he added, sounding pained.

“If she keeps them to herself, there will not be a need.”

Merlin hummed agreement. Once the nurse was finished getting the last bit of medical equipment hooked up, she trotted out of the room at Merlin’s side, and Harry was left alone with his girl once more.

To all outward appearances, he seemed composed. Inside he was seething. Valentine would pay for this. His number had been up the moment they learned he was planning mass genocide, but now Harry wanted to make sure it _hurt_. His Eggsy was the most vibrantly alive person he had ever known. To see her laying there, limp and pale and all but lifeless, was an insult that he would not let go. Valentine, and every single sick bastard that was in on his plan, was going to die. If that included Arthur, then Harry would gladly be the one to squeeze the life from that sagging, age-spotted throat, and he would do it with a smile on his face and a song in his heart.

James returned some time later, bring JB with him as well as a fresh suit. He took a turn sitting with Eggsy while Harry showered and changed, then took the dirty clothes with him as well as a small list. When he next returned, Harry had managed to eat something one of the nurses had brought him. He placed the small packed bag on the floor by Harry’s feet. “I’ve taken over Henry Devere’s finances for the time being,” James told him quietly. “So far, it does not seem to have earned a response, but we’ll see what happens after a couple more donations.”

“Do let me know if Valentine requests a meeting,” Harry said. “ **That** I will gladly take in person.”

“Michelle is half mad with worry.” James picked up Eggsy’s free hand, carefully smoothing out the iv tube to keep it from kinking. “Fuck these secrecy rules anyway,” he hissed. “She’d agree to be sedated for the trip but there’s no chance of Arthur budging.”

Harry shook his head. “He wouldn’t even consider it. Miserly old prig.”

“Quite.” They sat in silence for a time before James, with visible reluctance, stirred. “One of us needs to return to work. No need to worry after JB. I’ll take him home with me at night and bring him back to you in the morning, along with fresh clothes.” He walked around the bed and squeezed Harry’s shoulder. “I’ll take care of everything else. You just watch our girl.”

James was as good as his word. While Harry basically moved into Eggsy’s room, James brought JB and a fresh suit in every morning and took him and the previous day’s suit with him when he left in the evening. Harry stayed with her as much as he could, reading to her, discussing their next date night, keeping her up to date on the mission with what few details trickled in to them, and sometimes just telling her how much he loved her. When his limbs grew sore from sitting, he would tag James in for a couple hours to hit the gym and work out his frustrations there. Twice he saw the remaining recruits and thoroughly ignored them, as he was honestly worried that if he engaged, he might well beat each of them down for their initial insulting gossip.

After a month, Roxy finally returned, triumphant, from her extended deep cover mission. She was thinner than her usual, with dark circles under her eyes and a haunted look in them that morphed into instant worry when she got a good look at her friend laying so still in the bed. Merlin was right behind her and folded her into his arms when the months of stress mixed with the all new worry overcame her and she doubled over in tears. Harry vacated his seat and pushed the pair of them down into it. JB, stationed on his mistress’s lap, wiggled to the edge to snort and lick at Roxy’s face in canine worry.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Roxy sniffed, frantically wiping her face. “I didn’t mean to fall apart.”

Harry passed over his pocket square. “There’s no need,” he said gently. This was Eggsy’s best friend. He did not begrudge her the tears.

“It’s alright, sweetheart,” Merlin murmured. “She’ll be alright. There’s still traces of that chemical in her bloodwork. It will pass and she will wake up.”

“I know. I **do** know. I’m sorry, I’ll get it together.”

Harry crouched next to them and put a hand on her knee. “Roxy, it’s alright. You’ve been in deep cover for quite a long time now, under a great deal of strain. This is not what you expected to come home to. There’s no shame in letting it out.” She finally gave in and bawled her eyes out against Merlin. Harry had to swap his soiled pocket square for tissues. Eventually, though, the storm passed and Roxy was able to straighten up a bit. The swelling and redness did nothing to improve her eyes, though Harry would never mention it. “Roxy, why don’t you let Merlin take you home for a long shower and a change of clothes? When you’re ready to come back, it would be helpful if you could stop by our house and pick up a few things for Eggsy. I didn’t feel comfortable asking James to bring her underthings or nightclothes. They will neither of them admit it, but he is very much an uncle to her and she would have been embarrassed to have him seeing her knickers.”

Her forehead creased as she frowned at him. When Merlin murmured compliance, she shot him a sharp look then nodded. “Alright. I can do that. I’ll debrief when I get back.”

“Excellent. Thank you, Roxy.”

Merlin stood up but kept his arm around his young lover. Harry was struck, again, by Eggsy’s insight. He hadn’t seen a hint of Merlin’s feelings over the course of the young women’s training, which was only right and proper of course. But Eggsy had, and her little addition to the holiday decorations had helped spur the pair on. Though it had taken a bit longer than their apprenticeship for them to make it official, they had fallen as in love with each other as Harry was with Eggsy or James with Michelle. Now Merlin escorted the young woman out with Roxy leaning on him, both physically and emotionally. Harry had no doubt that, if Roxy were in the bed instead of Eggsy, Harry would have had to take over training and running ops to allow the man to hover by her bed. It was why Merlin was allowing _him_ such leeway.

Roxy returned a little over two hours later. She had indeed showered and changed into a Kingsman suit, and as he’d expected, Merlin had brought her up to speed. Her spine was straight, and while the circles under her eyes were still present, there was a flat, cold determination in them. Harry hated to see it. She had just spent months dismantling a human trafficking ring, and he knew well the horror that would cling afterwards. By rights, she should have taken some leave to process it, but with so few of them that they could absolutely trust, he wasn’t surprised to see her back and clearly on mission. He accepted the small satchel of Eggsy’s clothes with thanks, then gestured to the opposite chair.

Roxy sat and picked up Eggsy’s other hand, frowning as she smoothed her own fingers over Eggsy’s. “Her skin is a bit dry. This sterile air is so harsh,” she muttered.

“You’ll have to take her out for a manicure when she wakes up.”

“Yes. She promised me a girl’s day out when I got back. I will hold her to that. I can’t stay long,” she said briskly. “I’m due to debrief with Merlin and Arthur soon.”

“Feel free to return whenever you wish. I don’t like to leave her alone, but there are times when I need to stretch my legs, so to speak. And Eggsy might appreciate a voice besides mine reading to her.” He picked up one of the novels that he’d had James bring. The cheesy romance novels were not to his personal tastes, but they were a guilty pleasure of Eggsy’s and he would never begrudge her those.

Roxy glanced at the title and smiled. “Oh, that’s a good one! I mean. Well. They’re a fun bit of fluff sometimes.”

Harry managed a laugh. “Fluff indeed. A few of the scenes have been rather – inspiring.” He dug through the stack until he found a particular one. “You may enjoy this one,” he offered mildly. “It features a young English lady married off to a Scottish laird.” Roxy took it, biting her lip to hide her laughter. “Perhaps you can get Merlin to read it with you.” She lost the battle against her laughter, and though it had a slightly hysterical edge to it, it was still a welcome sound.

Roxy was a welcome addition to the routine. Once she’d debriefed, she was officially on leave, as protocol dictated. She spent quite a bit of time with him in Eggsy’s room and was another guard for the times when he had to blow off a bit of steam. She took her own turns at reading to Eggsy, and it was a bit odd to hear the young woman alter her voice for each character, not to mention the unrealistic sex scenes. He had a bit of difficulty meeting Merlin’s gaze after she really gave it her all, until Merlin smirked and mentioned that wasn’t at all what Roxy sounded like. Based on the smug tone of voice, Harry didn’t want to actually know.

James’ investigation continued, and he was able to link the men that had taken Arnold to Argentina with a mercenary group that had been involved with experiments with chemical warfare. They were linked with at least two massacres, one that had involved a chemical that had apparently caused all exposed to become so enraged they had slaughtered each other, the other showing a similar scene but minus any trace of chemicals at all. Henry Devere’s donations continued, with James increasing the amount in the hopes of finally sparking Valentine’s interest.

The recruits, down to six, went through the parachute test. Harry broke away from Eggsy long enough to watch. In an unprecedented turn of events, they all failed. Two pulled their cords almost as soon as Merlin finished announcing that one of them didn’t have a parachute. The other four almost managed by pairing up, but their fear was such that none of them made it into the K. Merlin had no choice but to dismiss all of them, and Arthur had no choice but to go along with it. Recruitment was halted while ‘standards for recruitment were under review’.

Finally, three eternal months after the incident with Arnold, Eggsy woke. The heart monitor alerted him first, with the beeping increasing its tempo slightly. JB was the second sign. The little dog, from the first time James had brought him in, had always hopped up and laid against Eggsy’s hip, head laid on her stomach. He’d move when Harry pet him, or someone came to take him for a quick walk, but varied rarely in his position. Once the heart monitor began to speed up, JB lifted his head to stare Eggsy in the face, whimpering slightly.

Harry dropped the book he’d been reading – another ridiculous romance by the same author of the book he’d handed Roxy – and used both hands to grasp Eggsy’s. He chafed her fingers, massaging the tendons, hoping for a response. After a quarter of an hour, he almost gave it up as a blip, but JB whined again and actually scooted up the bed on his belly to reach her face. He licked her cheek and Harry saw her face crease in response for the first time. He shot to his feet and bent over her, hand cupping her cheek. “Eggsy? Darling, it’s Harry,” he crooned. “Can you hear me, love? I need you to open your eyes, darling. Please open your eyes.”

Eggsy let out a faint sigh, lips parting slightly. Her forehead wrinkled a bit. Then, as though it were taking enormous effort, her eyes fluttered open. Hazy green focused slowly on his face and she smiled. Harry felt tears pricking at his eyes. “That’s it, darling. My lovely girl.” He bent to brush a kiss over her lips. He felt her arms come up around his shoulders and lost it, pulling her tight to his chest while his tears wet her neck.

“Harry? Harry, what’s wrong?” she slurred, trying to hold him tighter.

He shifted to press her forehead to hers, kissing her over and over, uncaring of her stale breath. “Nothing, anymore. You mustn’t do that again, Eggsy. Promise me,” he ordered.

She blinked at him, confused. “Okay? I promise. I won’t do..whatever I did again.”

“Three months, darling. You’ve been in a coma for three months!”

JB squirmed between them, having finally tired of being squished and denied attention from his human. Harry shifted just enough that the dog could move, but refused to let her go. Eggsy dropped a hand to pet his head while staring at Harry in astonishment. “I never was! Three months?” She blinked several times. “Explains why I feel made o’ wet noodles, I s’pose.” She frowned, studying his face, then looped both arms around his neck. “I’m sorry, love. My Harry,” she sighed, pulling his face back down. She offered up kisses, petting his hair and crooning apologies whenever he left her mouth free.

Harry wasn’t sure how long he spent curled over her, pressing kisses and tears into her skin, until he finally felt wrung out enough to straighten. He couldn’t bring himself to entirely break contact, however, and kept jealous hold of her hand. Her fingers curled wonderfully back around his own. “I’m sorry,” she said again, pulling his hand to her mouth to kiss his knuckles. “I’d have gone half mad with worry, if it was you.”

“I have been no better,” he assured her. “James and Merlin and Roxy have been running about for me so I didn’t have to leave you.”

“We have the best family.”

“We do,” he agreed. “And speaking of, we should alert them that you’re awake.”

“When you’re ready.” She kissed his knuckles again, squeezing his hand.

Harry sighed and didn’t even attempt to resist the impulse to bend over and kiss her a bit more, delighting in the way she opened to him and welcomed him in, fingers threading into his hair. Every motion reassuring him that she was awake, was here, had not left him. Still, duty would call sooner or later, and the sooner they got the necessary stuff taken care of, the sooner he could take her home and tuck her into their bed, warm and safe and just his, at least for a time before duty would make him share her once more with the world. He pressed the call button while he was still kissing her, knowing that Merlin was likely right outside since he would have been alerted to the change in her vitals.

His suspicions were confirmed when the door opened mere seconds later, and he reluctantly sat back down, still holding her hand. He refused to release it, much as he had for the last three months, as Merlin went through the typical post unconscious round of questions of who are you, do you remember the year, where you are, last thing you remember. Eggsy answered all of his questions in a clear, strong voice, constantly squeezing Harry’s hand.

Merlin nodded approvingly. “Excellent, Eggsy. Just as I’d hoped, there’s no sign of any damage. Now, I want you to forget the majority of your last day. You’ll unlock your feed for us now that you’re awake, and we will find most of the transmission damaged. Some kind of signal interference scrambled it when Arnold entered the room. What happened in that lecture hall remains a mystery.”

Harry tore his gaze away from Eggsy’s face to look at his friend. “Signal interference?” he questioned.

Merlin nodded. “I’m afraid so. There was some type of signal transmission happening, and I’ve traced it back to Valentine’s servers, not that it came as a surprise. But when Arthur asks, it interfered with the transmission from the glasses and the recording is too damaged to be recovered. Thus far he knows you were wanting to speak with Arnold to find out why he vanished and returned and has no idea that we suspect Valentine. Nor does he know we know about the implant – though that at least isn’t much of a lie, as we don’t know its full functionality.”

“Exploding heads is one hell of a function already,” Eggsy said dryly.

“Indeed. And if they can do that, god only knows what else they can do. Now,” Merlin said briskly, “I’ll send in a nurse to remove the various tubes and such. Dinner will follow shortly after. Bland to start, since your system has been without real food for quite some time. You’ll be needing some physical therapy to regain muscle tone, though we have been keeping your muscles limber. I’ll write a list of exercises you can start on to regain your strength. You’re young and in excellent health. It shouldn’t take long before you’re back in fighting trim.”

“When can I take her home?” Harry demanded.

Merlin gave him a stern look. “The lass has just woken. I want normal food and at least a normal night’s sleep before I release her. In the morning, Harry, provided all goes well. I’ll not rush her recovery just so you can hide her away a few hours sooner.”

Unabashed, Harry gave him a good scowl back. “I was suggesting no such thing, Hamish, and you know it!”

“Squabble later, boys. I wanna get this catheter out – I hate the damned things! And,” she added, “my stomach is eatin’ away at my back bone, so something resembling real food would be nice.”

“I’ll see to it,” Merlin promised. “You may have a couple visitors while you eat, however, if you’re amenable. James and Roxy will be very anxious to see you.”

Eggsy brightened. “Roxy’s about? Brilliant! Send ‘em down after the nurse has unhooked me, yeah?” Merlin nodded and left, pausing to squeeze Harry’s shoulder on his way. Eggsy gave his hand a light tug, which he followed until he was bent over her again. “Share me just a little while, love, okay? We’ll get me all unhooked, and fed, an’ let them hug all over me, an’ then I’m all yours the rest of the night,” she promised. “Roxy’s been gone so long, an’ I know James’ll want to see me himself so he can tell mum I’m really alright.”

“It’s alright, darling,” he assured her. “They’re family, of course I can share you with them. For a bit, at least.”

“I wanna get all the fussin’ overwith,” she confessed. “I wanna go home with you, an’ maybe have a nice long bath. I feel all grubby, like.”

“A long, hot bath,” he promised. “Followed by a lovely massage with that lotion you like, with breakfast, lunch, and dinner in bed.”

“You’ll spoil me.”

“Oh yes, darling. I intend to thoroughly spoil us both.”

There was a quick knock and one of the nurses came in when he called out the okay. She smiled cheerfully to see Eggsy awake and talking. “There you are! Lovely to see you up and about, Gareth. Now, just hold still for a bit while I get you all unhooked. Galahad, I’ll need that arm, if you please.”

Harry reluctantly moved to the side and pushed the chair back to give her room. He carded his fingers through Eggsy’s hair as the nurse deftly removed the iv from Eggsy’s hand and taped a bandage over the small wound, then went around to the other side to remove that one as well. She disposed of the gloves, washed her hands, and returned with fresh gloves and a large, empty syringe. She raised an eyebrow at them. Eggsy just grimaced. “It’s fine, nothing he ain’t seen b’fore.”

“Alright, then.” She flipped the blankets up to reveal Eggsy’s pale legs, then lifted the edge of the gown as well. Harry watched critically as she gently drew the water from the small balloon holding the catheter in place and eased the catheter out. Eggsy’s twitched a bit but relaxed and smiled with relief when it was done and the nurse covered her back up. “Food is right behind me,” the nurse promised. “We’ll want to see you eat and drink normally. You’re likely to feel rather weaker than you’re used to, so make sure you have help going to the bathroom.” She smiled at Harry. “If you have to leave for anything, make sure you let one of us know. Gareth, it may be uncomfortable to urinate normally for the first day or two. If the discomfort lasts longer than that, we need to know. If you notice blood in your urine, we need to know. You’ve had it in for quite some time, so if you have any issues at all with urinating, please let us know.”

“Got it,” Eggsy assured her.

The nurse looked a little apologetic. “You won’t be released until everything is working normally, so even if it stings to pee, you still need to drink water and go before we’ll release you. Please don’t try to avoid drinking to avoid the discomfort. It’s a normal impulse, but it will only delay things.”

“She won’t,” Harry promised. He would see to it, if Eggsy’s own good sense didn’t.

“Excellent. Is there anything I can get you? Are you warm enough, need another pillow?”

“Nah, I’m good. Thanks!”

“Don’t hesitate to press the call button. I’m on duty for another three hours. Either myself or Merlin will come right away.” With that promise, the nurse left.

They weren’t alone for long. More than likely having been waiting for the nurse the leave, James and Roxy burst through the door, the former carrying a tray.

Roxy flew across the room and flung herself on Eggsy’s chest. “You jerk! I’m gone for a few months and you get yourself into a coma?!” Grunting irritably, JB wiggled his way out from under her and gave Harry a disgruntled look. Smiling his commiseration, Harry picked him up and sat in his chair to give the two young women a chance to properly reunite. Eggsy patted Roxy’s back and apologized for a bit until Roxy was finally able to straighten up, sniffling and wiping her eyes. She landed a gentle punch on Eggsy’s shoulder. “Don’t do it again. That was really rude, Eggsy.”

“What can I say, I grew up in a rough neighborhood. Still got some bad manners lingerin’ about,” Eggsy joked. She made grabby hands towards James, who attempted a bit more decorum as he carried the tray over to her. Eggsy glanced at him and Harry nodded, taking the tray from James to get it out of the way so she could yank the man down for a hug. “Don’t try that dignified crap with me, James Atherton,” she said fiercely.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, dear girl,” James lied. “I am so very glad to see you awake. You’ve had us all very worried.”

“Take a bit more than some exploding head to take me outta the game.”

“That’s very good to hear. Your mother’s been worried sick.”

“I’ll call her as soon as I’m allowed.” Eggsy finally released him. “Now, tell me that tray has food.”

James laughed and nodded. “Of a sort.” He adjusted the bed so Eggsy was sitting up, then took the tray back to lay it over her lap. When he removed the cover over the food, he revealed a bowl of rather watery looking oatmeal to go with the glass of water and smaller glass of orange juice.

Eggsy grimaced at it but dug in, managing half the bowl before she stopped with a disgruntled look. “How in the hell am I full offa just that?” she grumbled. She sipped at the juice, leaning back against the bed.

“You’ve been iv fed for three months,” Roxy pointed out. “Your stomach has likely shrunk.”

“Bugger. Oh well. I’ll get it back. Now, catch me up. What’s been happening?”

“I finished my mission, obviously. Brilliantly successful, I might add.”

Eggsy was a sharp girl and sent her friend an appraising look. “I figured as much. Kicked their filthy arses, eh?”

“Very much so,” Roxy confirmed fiercely.

Eggsy gave her sleeve a tug. “We’ll have our girl’s day out, soon as I get my land legs back under me, an’ you can tell me all about it.”

“You better believe it. And I saw the recruits – before they all failed out. What a bunch of useless lumps! How did you put up with them?”

“Impatiently, an’ by literally kicking their arses,” Eggsy said dryly. “Y’know, they was thinkin’ I was some kinda general whore for Kingsman? One o’ the morons said that shite in front of Harry.” She held her hand out towards him, which he obligingly stretched a hand to meet. “Broke the dumbshit’s arm an’ leg.”

“As well he should have,” James said fiercely. “I would certainly have done the same, had my brain not been so completely fried at the time. It’s one of my favorite bits of footage to go back and rewatch.”

“James!” Eggsy laughed. “You’re terrible! He don’t need the encouragement.”

“No, I certainly do not,” Harry agreed. “I would happily do so again and not feel a shred of guilt.”

“They was terrified of him,” Eggsy confided to Roxy. “An’ then they saw him run the obstacle course, an’ nearly shit themselves whenever they caught sight of him.”

Harry rolled his eyes, hiding a smile. “You exaggerate, darling.”

“No I ain’t!” She poked him in the side. “You should be proud, love. Settin’ records an’ all an’ terrifying morons all in one go. It was fuckin’ beautiful.”

“If you say so.” He _had_ been rather pleased with his performance, truth be told. The older he got, the more difficult it was becoming to maintain his physical fitness. Being able to match a woman twenty years his junior in peak physical condition was no mean feat. The terror of the louts she’d been helping to train had been just a bonus.

They chatted a bit more before Merlin returned to shoo James and Roxy out. “She’s awake and you’ll have time to catch up more when she’s been released to go home. For now, she needs actual rest. Harry, I don’t suppose I can convince you – right.” He rolled his eyes at the flat glare Harry sent his way. “Well, at least I won’t have to send anyone in to check on her. You _will_ call me at once if there are any difficulties. Sheila explained what to watch out for?”

“Yup,” Eggsy said cheerfully. “We’re good, Merlin.”

Roxy and James leaned over for fast hugs and James picked JB up on his way out. “I’ll drop him at Harry’s tomorrow,” James promised. “When I bring your mum by for a visit.”

“Oh bring Daisy too! Three months – she must be so big by now.”

“I will, dear. Get some rest.”

Harry waited until they had all filed out, then nudged her water glass at her. “Drink, darling. The sooner you get everything working, the better.”

She made a face at him. “That might be the first time someone has been eager for me to pee.” He chuckled as she took the glass and drained it. Then she sighed and sat back, scooting to the side. When she patted the bed beside, he didn’t hesitate to take the offered seat and folded her close. He closed his eyes, just reveling in the feel of her pressed close, the fingers twined with his own that flexed and shifted, constantly reminding him that she was awake and aware. “I really am so sorry, love. I never meant to worry you.”

“I know, dearest. We could hardly have expected cranial explosives,” he allowed. “None of this was due to any fault or mistake on your part.”

“Thanks for that. I just wish I could have gotten my hands on that implant. Has Valentine been up to anything of interest?”

“I honestly have no idea,” Harry admitted. “I’ve been here the whole time.” She made a protesting noise which he hushed with a finger to her lips. “With our very leader under suspicion,” he said quietly, intensely, “and his well known dislike of you, I was not about to take a chance while you were defenseless. When you add in Merlin being distracted until relatively recently with the trainees, it was even more imperative that only those we could trust have access to you. Did you know that the nurse you so dislike is the _only_ one he will permit to attend to his medical needs? She attempted to get at you on the first day you were here. She hasn’t made a further attempt, but I have still supervised every aspect of your care.”

“It is absolute shit that we gotta be on our guard from our own people. We need to finish this, love. We need to take that bastard down and clean house.”

“And so we shall. But not before you’re recovered.”

Eggsy made a face at him. “Well, as to that, I have a bit of progress. I need the loo, Harry.”

“Of course.” He swung out of bed and turned to lift her, but she pushed his hands down.

“Gotta walk at some point. I’m feeling less like overdone noodles, so just keep me from fallin’, yeah?” She swung her legs over the edge and allowed the arm around her waist as she stood, wobbling for a few moments as unused muscles woke up and remembered their job. She walked reasonably steady into the bathroom. He averted his eyes politely while she used the toilet, wincing as she let out a hiss of discomfort. He’d had a catheter a time or two himself, and was well acquainted with the burning that came with the first couple of pisses after it was gone. He turned back when she flushed and went to wash her hands. “That wasn’t fun,” she said dryly. “But no blood, so everything should be good.” Her gaze drifted to the shower, eyebrows going up when she spotted his personal products rather than the Kingsman issued toiletries. “You really have just been camping out here. Harry, have you even been sleeping in there?”

“Of course.”

“That had to be murder on your back! Those recliners ain’t meant for that.” He shrugged at her. It was true enough, but his sessions in the gym had worked out the knots well enough. “Next time – not that I’m plannin’ a next time – bully Merlin into bringin’ in a second bed. Um. Don’t suppose you’d stay while I had a fast shower? I know they was probably givin’ me sponge baths an’ all, but I feel all manky.”

Harry sniffed. “Like I would permit you to shower alone, darling. The heat could make you dizzy, and you’re still a bit wobbly as it is.” He slipped his jacket off, probably more eager than he should be for the task at hand. But it had been agony to not be allowed to assist with Eggsy’s care the last months, having to leave the bathing and turning and exercising of her limbs to stave off atrophy to others and simply supervise.

Eggsy didn’t protest his stripping, so he felt fairly safe in laying out towels for them both and climbing in with her. Her usual independence was quiet as she leaned against his chest and let him do all the work, washing her hair and then body, ridding her of the antiseptic smell that had been clinging to his nostrils for months. When he was done, he patted her dry and handed her the bag Roxy had packed. He wasn’t so far gone that he felt the need to dress her – or rather, he wasn’t so far gone that he had to give in to the need to dress her. She was being delightfully indulgent with him and he didn’t want to ruin it.

He hadn’t looked at what Roxy had brought, as it frankly hadn’t mattered. It had mostly been a ploy to give the young woman a concrete way to help as well as on opportunity for her to be brought up to speed away from Kingsman and listening ears. But Roxy had chosen very well, and brought Eggsy’s favorite cotton sleep shorts and one of Harry’s old workout t-shirts that Eggsy had stolen ages ago. It made him wonder a bit just how much Eggsy shared with the other young woman, before he decided he was probably better off not knowing. Harry made do with a pair of hospital pajamas. It would only be for the one night, and it would still be light years better than sleeping in his suit in the recliner.

They returned to the bed, which Eggsy made him climb into first. Then she crawled on top of him and sprawled over his chest, humming contentedly while he ran a brush through her damp hair until it was dry and shining down her back. He tossed the brush into the recliner and kept running his fingers through her hair. She murmured something soft and indistinct, shifting against him slightly. The fingers curled against his chest slowly relaxed. Before she could fall completely asleep, he stretched down for the blankets folded at the end of the bed and covered them both, then lowered the head of the bed so they were mostly prone. She roused enough to adjust to the new position but quickly settled again, falling into a deep, though thankfully natural, sleep.

His sleep that night was the best he’d had in months, hospital bed notwithstanding.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's a two for one!

They were rudely awakened the next morning by Chester King throwing open the door and striding in without so much as a warning tap first. Harry was awake and between Eggsy and the door before Chester could make it all the way inside. Though Harry didn’t have a weapon to hand, there was no doubt as to the threat of his posture, which he held for a second too long to be entirely dismissed as a product of his abrupt awakening. Chester had the gall to roll his eyes. “Really, Harry, the dramatics are unnecessary.” His eyes swept boldly over the pair of them. “This is hardly appropriate,” he reproved.

“There is nothing about spending the night with my partner now that she is awake and recovering that is inappropriate, Arthur.” Harry swung his legs over the side, blocking the old man’s view of Eggsy as she righted herself and tugged the blankets up over her chest.

“Such conduct should not occur on Kingsman grounds. But that is a discussion for another day. Gareth!”

Eggsy sat up straight and gave the man a bland look. Even dressed in nothing but a threadbare old shirt and with her hair a sleep tousled mess, she managed a great deal of dignity. If Arthur had been hoping to fluster or embarrass her by arriving so early and unannounced, it hadn’t worked. “Arthur,” she responded calmly.

“Merlin has informed me that he has been able to review the feed from your glasses and found it corrupted due to some outside interference. I require your report of what happened.”

“I’m afraid I can’t help with that,” Eggsy said, managed to sound both regretful and frustrated. “I remember the morning well enough. Lancelot requested that I speak with Professor Arnold, as he’d been noted as having vanished the same as some of the other missing persons, but he returned, unlike them. Lancelot had what he thought was a viable lead on tracking Sir Elton and didn’t want it to grow cold, which is why he asked me to lend a hand. But I don’t remember anything after arriving on campus.”

“Nothing at all?” Arthur demanded. “Were you able to converse with the professor?”

“I don’t know, Arthur. I don’t remember anything.”

“Ridiculous,” Arthur snapped.

Harry bristled a bit, but Eggsy beat him to it. “I don’t see how. Merlin informed me that my coma was not due to head trauma but due to an unknown chemical in my system. It left me unconscious for three months,” she said sharply. “He still doesn’t know what it was. We have no way of knowing what other effects it might have had. I am simply grateful that the memory loss was only a short window, rather than days, weeks, or months! If I _was_ able to speak with Arnold, do you imagine I’m pleased to have whatever he told me lost? He could very well have shared something vital to Lancelot’s investigation and it’s gone!”

Arthur made a scoffing sound, then rounded on Harry. “Now that she has recovered, I expect you’ll return to your duties.”

“Hardly, Arthur. Merlin has already informed me that we have no pending missions, so I will be returning home with Eggsy until she has _fully_ recovered. As she said, we have no notion what other effects that chemical could have had. If there are other side effects, I will see them.”

“Very well,” Arthur gritted out. “I expect to be kept up to date. If the girl is unfit for duty, then we will have to recruit for two positions, rather than just Lamorak’s.” He turned to stalk out, too well bred to slam the door, though Harry had no doubt that he wanted to.

Eggsy made a rude noise. “Prick. I hope Merlin cuts me loose today – I don’t wanna be under the same roof as him right now.”

“You have eaten and kept it down, and drunk and managed to urinate without complications. As those were his requirements for your release, I fully intend to hold him to it.”

“Good. Gimme your mobile, yeah? I wanna text Roxy, see if she’ll bring me somethin’ else to wear. Don’t fancy walkin’ out in my jimjams.”

“You could always borrow one of the trainee suits,” he offered, stifling a grin.

Eggsy, predictably, made a gagging sound. “Fuck that! I’d go naked b’fore I put one o’ those suits on again. Fuckin’ ugly as sin, Harry, an’ they ain’t all that comfortable.”

“It did look far better crumpled on our bedroom floor than it did on you.” He thought about it. “Or indeed anyone.” He fetched his mobile and handed it over while he shook out his suit. It would do for the day until he got her home. He dressed quickly and Eggsy was done texting by the time he was finished. Rather hopefully, he found her brush and sat behind her on the bed. She drew her knees up and crossed her arms on the, resting her chin there in tacit permission for him to proceed. Smiling with delight, he started brushing her hair. He wasn’t sure how long she would accept the extra pampering. His lovely girl was independent by nature, and while she had never objected to caring gestures, she had always been quick to return them, as though to prove she could take care of others just as well. He could understand her reluctance to feel dependent on someone else. They had spoken often enough of Dean and the way he had twisted the relationship with Michelle until the other woman was completely reliant on him for just about everything. Pampering, to Eggsy, was a method of control rather than an expression of caring. She had been coming around for a while now, however, and less and less acted as though she had to pay him back. Even a couple years ago she would have been furious over his reaction to that ginger lout’s words, and would certainly not have allowed him to bathe her or brush her hair without protest.

He kept up the brushing long past the point where her hair was tangle free, simply because they were both enjoying it. A knock on the door finally brought it to a halt. Eggsy invited the person in and one of the nurses poked her head around the door, smiling cheerfully. “Glad I didn’t wake you! How are you feeling this morning?” she asked, walking in with a tray.

“Fine. Bit hungry, actually, so you got great timin’.” Eggsy straightened her legs as the nurse brought the tray over. Eggsy lifted the cover off to reveal a plate of scrambled eggs and toast, along with another glass of juice and water. “Brilliant.”

“You go ahead and eat, I’m just going to get a quick check of your vitals.” The nurse worked around Eggsy’s eating, taking blood pressure and checking her temperature with an ear thermometer. Eggsy had to pause her eating while her lungs and heart were listened to, then dove right back in when that was done. “Have you used the toilet yet?”

“Yup. All clear!”

“Any discomfort?”

“A bit of burnin’, nothin’ major.”

“To be expected.” The nurse made some notes in the chart. “Have you been walking at all?” she asked, with a pointed look at Harry.

Eggsy laughed. “Yeah. An’ stood in the shower, though Harry was right there in case I got wobbly. Everything’s workin’ like it should.”

“Glad to hear it.” She made another couple of notes then beamed. “We’re all very glad to see you up and about, Gareth. I’ll update Merlin, but everything is looking good. Make sure you’re drinking plenty of fluids, particularly when you eat. You’ll be given a diet sheet to follow as you get your system used to solid foods again. Your stomach has most likely shrunk, so don’t be surprised if you can’t eat as much as you used to at first. Small meals several times a day is best. You’ll also be given some exercises to work on to get your muscles back in shape. It shouldn’t take too long,” she assured them. “You’ve lost next to no muscle tone. Any questions?”

“Nah, I think I’m good. Harry?” Eggsy looked back at him, eyebrow raised.

“None, though you may be assured if anything comes up, we will be in contact.”

“Excellent! I’ll just go update Merlin then. Finish your water at least, if you can’t finish the eggs,” she instructed, noting that Eggsy had slowed to just picking. With a final smile she breezed out.

“Harry?”

“Yes, darling?”

“Would you finish brushing my hair?” Eggsy peeked at him over her shoulder, a pink tinge high on her cheeks.

“Of course, dearest.” Smiling more than the nurse had, he resumed the slow, meditative strokes with the hair brush as Eggsy sipped her water.

Roxy arrived a short while later, accompanied by Merlin. While Roxy moved straight for a hug, Merlin assessed the breakfast tray. “Not bad. Jenna told you about the diet sheet? Good. Here’s the diet sheet, and these are the exercises I want you doing. Harry, try to resist the urge to carry her everywhere. Eggsy, if he’s getting on your nerves, don’t be afraid to dart him.”

Harry rolled his eyes. “Honestly, Merlin. You are not as funny as you think you are.”

“Who was being funny? I’m dead serious. You are the worst mother hen in history, Harry.” Merlin gestured at the door. “Let’s step outside while Eggsy gets dressed.” Harry followed him out of the room. “Arthur caught me, mentioned that he’d been down to see Eggsy this morning. I apologize – I didn’t know he had arrived or I would have let you know he was coming.”

“Not to worry. I half expected him to barge in last night. His arrival this morning wasn’t a surprise. I will allow, however, that it will be a relief to get her home where she can finish recovering without having to wonder if he’s going to pop up around a corner.”

Merlin nodded. “Try not to coddle her into shooting you. I know your mother hen instincts have to be going crazy, but _try_.” His lips twitched. “She is clear for any physical activity she feels up for,” he added blandly.

Harry punched him in the shoulder hard enough to make his fingers tingle. Merlin laughed even while he massaged his shoulder.

The door opened and Roxy and Eggsy walked out. Roxy passed him the travel bag with Eggsy’s things in it. “James will be by later with JB,” she told him. “And Michelle and the baby, of course. He wanted to give you the morning to get settled in. We cleaned out the fridge and did a quick shop for some basics, enough to get you by for a couple days at least.”

Harry slung the bag over his shoulder and slipped his other arm around Eggsy, ignoring Merlin’s pointed cough. “Thank you, Roxy. You’ve been a tremendous help. I do appreciate it.”

“Happy to help.” Roxy gave Eggsy another hug. “Let me know when you’re feeling up to it and we’ll have our girl’s day out, okay? But not until you’re ready!”

“Yes mum.” Laughing, Eggsy gave him a nudge to get him moving. He needed little urging. Now that it was finally time to go, it was all he could do to keep from tossing her over his shoulder and running out.

The train had never seemed so slow, and traffic had never been so frustrating, as it was that morning. But finally the taxi pulled to a stop on front of their house. Eggsy echoed his sigh of relief when their front door closed behind them. “I don’t even remember the last three months but it still feels like ages since I been home,” she told him.

“Three months, in fact,” Harry said dryly. “For both of us.” Her forehead creased and she stepped right into his arms.

“What do you need, love?” she asked softly.

“Me? I am not the one who has been in a coma for three months. I should be asking you that,” he protested.

“Harry, don’t pretend that wasn’t harder on you than it was on me. All I had to do was lay there. You were the one stuck awake watching over me – so tell me what you need.”

“Just you awake, darling.”

“Hmm.” She pulled his head down for a slow, deep kiss. “How about we go with the original plan? A nice long bath, a massage, the whole bit? Then you can make us lunch an’ we’ll be all set when mum an’ James pop round with JB an’ the baby.”

“If that’s what you want, darling.” Harry hesitated for a moment, but as it seemed Eggsy was still in the mood to enable his doting, chose to go for it. She squeaked a bit when he swept her up bridal style but then just laughed and laid her head on his shoulder. “It’s been a long time since I carried you like this.”

“When did you ever carry me like this?” she demanded.

“When I found you in that warehouse, six years ago.”

“I don’t remember,” she admitted. “Shame, that. Might have you do this more often – feel a bit like a princess. Mind, there’s fun in our usual position, too.” She wasn’t wrong – he would never not love the feel of her legs wrapped around his waist.

Harry set her down carefully on the closed toilet and cupped her face. “I quite enjoyed tossing you over my shoulder. If you’re very good, and do all your exercises, perhaps we can arrange a repeat.”

Eggsy stared up at him, licking her lips. “Part of me wants to be pissed, cause I always follow instructions when I get hurt, but mostly I just wanna see you run the course again in those trousers.”

“Is that right?” he said mildly as he got the water running in the bath. “Because I seem to recall a sprained ankle you couldn’t manage to stay off of and a brace you kept forgetting to put on.”

“Oi! That’s cause it weren’t that bad,” she protested.

“It was so swollen we couldn’t see your ankle. Off with this.” He helped her off with her shirt then raised his eyebrows when her hands went to _his_. “Darling?”

“Baths are no fun by myself. The point is to relax with _you_.” Very determined fingers moved down his shirt buttons until he gave in and took over himself. Very obviously pleased with herself, Eggsy stripped herself down to skin then tugged him into the bath with her.

He had to admit, he wasn’t about to object to having her plastered over him some more. Even having spent the entire night squashed against her in the narrow hospital bed didn’t seem to have gotten the message really through, down deep where terror of her never waking up again had lived for three months. As much as he intended to behave himself – Merlin’s cheeky words be damned – he couldn’t help trailing his fingertips over her skin, just to feel her sigh and shift against him, feel the gooseflesh raise up wherever his touch went.

The water started to go cool. Before he could suggest getting out, she stretched out one beautifully toned leg to drain some of the water and run the hot to refresh it. Then she held her leg up. “Would you look at that? Ain’t never seen my leg hair so long. ‘S weird. Gonna be a pain to shave it.”

“Mmm.” He nuzzled her neck, kissing behind her ear. “Sit up, dearest.” With a bit of careful maneuvering he got the shifted so her feet were in his lap. She gave him a curious look and he just smiled and reached for her shave cream. Her eyes went wide but she didn’t protest as he worked the thick cream in an even layer from ankle to hip. The angle was a bit odd, but he managed with her foot resting on his shoulder. She had lost none of her flexibility, and moved with him easily as he slowly worked his way up her leg. By the time he’d finished the first, her torso was completely relaxed against the curved side of the tub and her eyes were dark and heavy lidded. He swapped legs after a brief kiss to her ankle. She let out a heavy sigh, bordering on a moan, as he worked the cream into her other leg. She again moved with him as he worked the razer up, rinsing after each careful swipe. He finished her second leg and she reached out to take the razer and dropped it back on the shelf. Then her legs slipped around his chest and pulled him further in until she could wrap her hands around the back of his neck and pull herself up to meet him in a scorching kiss.

Harry met her hungry tongue with equal fervor for several long, blissful moments, hands sliding up and down her thighs until he finally settled them on her hips. He pulled away from her mouth with a teasing nip to her bottom lip. “I do believe,” he said, only a trifle raggedly, “that the plan called for a massage after the bath.”

“Plans can change,” she pointed out breathlessly.

“As needed. But I do believe this plan needs to remain unchanged.” He stood up and flicked the drain stopper to start draining the tub as water sheeted down his body. He flicked the over head shower on and used the handheld to rinse the shaving cream and bath oil from them both. He toweled himself off quickly, then wrapped a bath sheet around her as she stood. He kissed the pout off her lips. “When you are completely recovered,” he promised, “I fully intend you have you ride me until we’ve flooded the whole bathroom. For now, my little love, I want to spread you out on our bed and get my hands all over you, until your muscles are so relaxed you can’t even think of moving.” He picked her up again to carry her to the bed.

She stretched out willingly face down on the bed for him, wiggling a bit as the soft duvet molded to her body. He snagged her bottle of lotion and squirted a generous dollop into his hands to warm it. Oil would be better, he knew, but would require a bit of clean up afterwards to get the excess off their skin. With guests arriving in the afternoon he didn’t want to bother with the extra cleanup. Besides, he’d promised to use her favorite lotion.

Straddling the small of her back, he worked the lotion slowly into her skin, moving down each arm to gently work the tendons in her hands. With a fresh dollop, he worked her shoulders and down to her tapered waist, smoothing his hands over and over her back until every last hint of tightness was gone, and her skin was gleaming and soft. He shifted to kneel between her eagerly spread legs and smoothed lotion into her buttocks and thighs, fingers gliding up until they were just barely brushing the glistening folds of her pussy. She shivered with every light touch of his fingers there and moaned her disappointment when he worked back down to knead her calves, ankles and feet. When he urged her over onto her back, her limbs were visibly heavy and splayed wantonly open for him, arms flung over her head.

The heat blazing from her unbelievably green eyes nearly distracted him from his goal, but the tight points of her nipples helped to keep him on track. He worked lotion into each leg in turn, again just teasing the folds of her sex when he reached the apex. Then he moved to her belly, gentle as he worked the muscles so as to not constrict her rapid breathing. When he finally cupped her breasts in lotion coated hands, he broke, just a bit, and placed a sucking, hungry kiss between them. She gasped and shuddered as his unshaven chin scraped against her. He pinched lightly at each nipple and she snapped. Her legs clamped around his hips like a vice and her hands buried themselves in his hair to tug urgently. He obeyed the command slowly, rubbing his stubble against her to leave a reddened trail in his wake. When he reached her mouth, she bit rather hard at his bottom lip, then sucked his tongue into her mouth. “I want,” she fairly growled into his mouth, “you.”

“You have me, my love. I’m right here,” he said, as innocently as he was able.

She was having none of it. She bit his lip again, then nipped along his jaw until she reached his ear. After sucking the lobe until his eyes crossed, she ran one hand down his back to grab his arse. Her fingernails dug in a bit. “I want your cock in me,” she demanded. “Right now!”

“As my lady wishes.” He shifted his hips, dragging his aching cock against her inner thigh until he felt her dripping pussy against the head. She tightened her legs and the grip on his arse and pulled, sheathing him inside her in one, hard thrust. She threw her head back with a stifled shriek. He pulled back and thrust in again, shifting slightly to get the right angle to rub her g-spot. The motion started the stream of filth falling from her lush mouth. From the first, his lovely girl had had a filthy mouth, delightfully uninhibited in her demands and praise.

As she moved against him, he found no evidence of loss of muscle tone or strength. Her wet heat gripped his cock wonderfully tightly, and her hips rose to meet him with equal fervor. He’d teased her long enough that her first release was quick, and he felt her nails score his backside and the back of his neck. He fucked into her even faster, driving her pleasure higher and dragging it out longer, until he felt the spasms around his cock ease off. He slowed then, long languid strokes teasing them both. Her eyes opened a bit blearily and he smiled. “There’s my girl,” he crooned. “My lovely girl. You feel so good under me, around me. So hot and wet for me, lovely.” He scraped his cheek against that sensitive spot on her shoulder, thrilling to hear her mewl of pleasure.

She surprised him then. With a shift of her legs and hips she flipped them so she was on top, sprawled over his chest. Ever adaptable, he ran his hands down her back to her hips and ground up against her in tight circles, rubbing her clit against the base of his cock. Gasping, she flung her head back and sat up, scoring her nails down his chest in firey lines. “Fuck, I love this. So deep in me, Harry, god.” She pressed her hand low on her belly. “So full, fuck, you feel so good.” She started to ride him, hips and thighs flexing as she rose and fell.

He kept a firm hold on her hips as he thrust up to meet her. Her breasts swayed and bounced with their movements, and he couldn’t resist curling up to pull a tight nipple into his mouth to suck and tongue. Her fingers landed back in his hair, keeping his head right there. She moaned, the sound vibrating deep in her chest. Encouraged, he sucked and nipped his way to the other one to give it fair treatment. “Fuck!” Her hands went behind her to brace against his slightly bent knees, back arched beautifully to splay her open for his attention and pleasure. He lifted a hand from her hip to pinch and tweak her spit wet nipple as he increased the suction around the one in his mouth. His other hand slid between then so he could rub her clit with his thumb. Her nails dug in again as her hips sped up, chasing her second orgasm. He bit lightly as his fingers pinched her nipple a little harder, and he increased the pressure of his thumb. “Harry, god, fuck, Harry!” She convulsed on him, hips jerking. He slid his thumb away and gentled his mouth and fingers on her nipples, knowing how oversensitive she got after a second orgasm so close to the first. He couldn’t stop fucking up into her though, couldn’t get enough of the wet grip of her around him.

“Gorgeous, darling. My lovely Eggsy.” He ran his hands down her back, encouraging her to tip forward again. She bent over him and pressed her mouth to his in a sloppy kiss, mostly just panting raggedly into each other. She rocked against him again, a slow counterpoint to his thrusts. “Again, precious. Can you go again for me? I think you can.” She pressed her face against his shoulder, arms clutching around him. He swiveled his hips a bit, just teasing, testing, spurred on by the ragged hitch to her breathing. “I thought so, darling. Do you want it like this, my love? Sitting in my lap with my cock inside you? Or should I turn you over, bend you in half and fuck it out of you?”

“Over.” She gulped and shuddered. “Over, love, m’legs ain’t gonna work much longer.”

“Anything you want, lovely. My precious darling, so good for me.” He rolled them over and hooked her knees over his arms. Her breathing was a bit more ragged like that, bent in half with her knees practically touching her ears. But it tilted her hips just right, allowing him to drive his cock in as deep as he could go. Which he did, over and over, at a steady, relentless pace. When she came again, he lost the battle with his own self control and spilled inside her, the contractions of her muscles milking him for every drop. He released her legs to fall limply by their sides. She wrapped her arms around him, pressing kisses into his neck and shoulder until he could lift his head enough to kiss her lovely, panting mouth.

They stayed that way for a while, entwined and kissing and kissing until his lips felt raw and swollen, until the minute shifting of their bodies had his spent cock slipping out of her to press against her soaked mound. Eventually, the growling of his stomach drew them apart slightly. He gave her a faintly embarrassed look. “Apologies, my love. It’s been quite some time since dinner.”

“I should be sayin’ that to you. Din’t even realize you din’t eat with me this mornin’. C’mon, I think it’s time for the lunch portion of the plan.” She gave him one last kiss before urging him up. She followed right after and staggered slightly, leaning in when he caught her. “Whoa. Lookit that, you shagged the bones right outta my legs,” she joked.

“Drat. That means I shall have to carry you everywhere,” he ‘complained’. He slid his hands down her back to her rear and urged her up. With a little hop, she obligingly wrapped her legs around his waist to let him carry her. She laughed in his ear, arms around his shoulders, legs around his waist, head tipped back. Overcome all over again with sheer, grateful _relief_ that she’d woken up, come back to him, he hugged her probably too tightly with his face pressed into her neck. She just held on and let him breathe raggedly against her for a while. When he lifted his face again, ready to apologize, she kissed him. He tried again, and again she kissed him. After the third time, he decided to take the hint.


	7. Chapter 7

Eggsy watched Harry move around the kitchen, throwing together a quick lunch for them. There had been a fear behind his eyes since the moment she’d woken up the night before, and even spending the entire night pressed so closely together you couldn’t have fit a sheet of paper between them hadn’t helped. She wasn’t even sure if the bath, massage, and subsequent lovemaking had helped as much as she’d hoped. Though he hadn’t cried again, the way he’d held her, shaking and hiding his face, had brought tears to _her_ eyes. As much as she wanted to jump up and help him, start doing things herself, she was worried about how he’d take it.

He’d ditched the suit and opted for a rare day of jeans and a soft henley. Eggsy had slipped into trackies and one of his work out t-shirts, as much because they were comfortable as because she much preferred the possessive look in his eyes than that poorly hidden fear. Anything was better than that fear. Soon enough they would both have to be back at work, and she would do anything to help him move past this. If he needed to take care of her for a while, then it wasn’t exactly a hardship.

He brought lunch to the table. He’d made them chicken sandwiches with fruit on the side and set a tall glass of water down beside her plate while he had tea. She put her feet in his lap as she ate, wiggling her toes occasionally just to feel the flex of his thighs in reaction. When they finished he did the washing up as well.

With her mum and James due over for the afternoon, they chose to sprawl out on the couch to wait. Harry tucked her close and almost absentmindedly slid his hand under her shirt to rest on her stomach. “What did James tell mum?” she wondered.

“I believe he mentioned an extended illness while out of the country. I doubt she bought the out of the country bit, seeing as James brought JB back and forth, but it kept up the polite fiction.”

“She musta been frantic. Fuckin’ hell, I wish I coulda got my hands on that implant.”

“I am simply grateful it wasn’t more toxic.”

Eggsy twisted to look up at him. “So am I, love,” she agreed. “Bit weird, yeah, knowing I missed three bloody months. Thinkin’ it coulda been worse. I’m so sorry I worried you but. I’m so glad you were able to be there watchin’ over me. I don’t like not feelin’ safe at HQ – not knowing if we can trust our own.”

“Nothing could have kept me from you,” Harry promised.

“I know. You got no idea, love, how safe you make me feel. How safe you’ve _always_ made me feel.” She pulled his free hand up to kiss his palm. “It’s time to end this shit, though, ain’t it?”

“The first crack we see, we will blow this whole thing wide open, darling. Valentine, and everyone in his pocket, are going to burn.” Said with such simple, calm surety that Eggsy felt a tiny moment of pity for their enemies. But it passed quickly. It might have been her that had been injured, but it was Harry that had suffered. She wouldn’t forgive that – not ever.

James and her mum arrived soon after, bringing Daisy and a happily snorting JB with them. Harry stepped back for a bit and let Michelle cry all over Eggsy, alternating between hugging the breath out of her and kissing her face. She calmed eventually but insisted on sitting on the couch with her while she held her much bigger baby sister. They all went with the illness in a foreign country fiction, and she was happy to inform her mother that she’d be back to work in just a couple weeks or so. Michelle didn’t receive the news with the same happiness, but at least looked reassured.

Eggsy was able to divert her, first with talk about Daisy and the infant’s new accomplishments. She was sitting up on her own, and had begun to do a kind of belly crawl when she was laid on the floor for tummy time. Her hand eye coordination was improving by leaps and bounds as well. Eggsy took a look around and then stared at Harry. “We’re gonna have to baby proof, love. She’s gonna be into _everything_. Aren’t you, sweetheart?” Eggsy dropped a kiss to Daisy’s nose, making the little girl giggle in the most appealing way.

Harry glanced around as well, forehead wrinkled. “Good grief. How on earth does one do that?”

James laughed. “You’d be amazed at what’s considered a hazard. There’s an entire industry focused on blunting corners and blocking outlets. I’m happy to give you a hand.”

“That might be best,” Harry agreed.

Michelle turned the conversation to some of the other things Eggsy had missed, notably celebrity gossip. She mentioned several more public figures that had gone missing the last three months, a couple of divorce announcements, a marriage, and then, “Oh! And there’s this American bloke. Rich tech genius, yeah? He’s only gone an’ designed a new SIM card that he’s gonna hand out for free to _everyone_ , mind you, that’ll give everyone free mobile and internet for life! Can you believe that? He’s gonna release it an’ you’ll be able to walk in with any kind of mobile and just have it.” She shook her head. “He must be mad, t’be givin’ somethin’ like that out for free with no restrictions or nothin’. Bet it’s drivin’ all the big mobile and internet companies up the bloody wall.”

Eggsy reached out and gripped her mother’s hand. “Who, mum? Who’s givin’ the cards out?”

Michelle stared at her. “That American bloke – Valentine.”

The room went silent, save for Daisy’s soft noises. Eggsy didn’t turn to look at Harry or James. She kept her eyes on her mother and tightened her grip. “Mum, you need to listen to me. Keep away from them SIM cards. I don’t trust anything that’s too good to be true, and you shouldn’t either.”

“Well, it ain’t like I need one. Got that phone from James, don’t I? Leave it for the ones as need it.” Michelle’s gaze flickered a bit.

“Mum.” Eggsy shook her a little. “I mean it. Whatever burner you got, you don’t get one of those SIM cards.”

“Burner?” James asked a little sharply.

“We always had a spare hidden somewhere. Had to – Dean liked to take our mobiles whenever he fuckin’ felt like it. I still got one,” Eggsy explained. “It’s buried under my paint supplies in the basement. Most of the time I forget I even got it. That’s the point – if we ain’t thinkin’ of it, no one else is likely to either. Mum, you promise me. Stay away.”

Michelle searched her gaze for several long moments then reluctantly nodded. “Okay, babes. Not like I need it,” she repeated. Her gaze slid to the side where James and Harry were sitting and she winced slightly.

Eggsy turned to look and frowned. Harry seemed unperturbed, most likely because he had already known about it. James, however, looked stricken until he saw her looking. Then he wiped his face clean into a bland mask. She turned back to her mother. “Want some tea, mum?” Michelle nodded and started to get up. “Nah, you just relax. I’ll get it.” She passed Daisy to her mother and stood. “James, gimme a hand, yeah? You know how fussy you’s get about your tea.” She didn’t give him the opportunity to protest, snagging his tie as she walked to the kitchen. She waited until she got the kettle going, then leaned against the counter. “It ain’t about you,” she told him bluntly.

“Isn’t it?” he asked, a trace of bitterness in his voice. “If I had truly earned her trust, she wouldn’t feel the need for a hidden mobile.”

“It ain’t,” she repeated. “It’s about scars so deep ain’t nothin’ ever gonna make ‘em fade. It’s about knowin’ that life can be complete and utter _shite_ sometimes. She don’t got it ‘cause of you, ‘cause of anything you done or ain’t done. She’s got it ‘cause life fucks you over for no reason sometimes, an’ shit happens that you can’t plan for, can’t predict or change. She’s got it for the same reason I got it – backups are a necessary fact of life, an’ if everyone knew about ‘em, they’d be useless. Just like you got backup weapons.”

James ran a hand through his hair and breathed out shakily. “It doesn’t feel the same,” he said lowly. “It feels like I’ve failed her.”

Eggsy stepped close to him and took his hand. “Hey. Listen to me. Swear down, I would never lie to you. You haven’t failed anyone. After Dean, she knows bad men. Same as I do. You get to be able to smell ‘em, almost. That mobile ain’t wherever she stashed it ‘cause you haven’t proved yourself or somethin’. She ain’t got it in case of a day where you hit her. She’s got it ‘cause she made a huge mistake once an’ she was caught with no way out. No one to call for help. She’s got it ‘cause of her own mistakes, an’ she learns from ‘em. You’re gone a lot. An’ now she’s got another little girl to think of. It was havin’ a burner that let me call for help that night. If she didn’t trust you, down to her bones, she would never have married you. She would never have given up her flat to live with you. She would never have given up her job to stay home an’ raise Daisy.”

“Then why didn’t she tell me?” he asked. “Did she think I’d be angry?”

“You should be askin’ her that, but. Knowin’ mum? She just didn’t think about it. It’s like makin’ sure you got paper for the loo – routine. An’ knowin’ mum, she feels like shit right now. Cause she loves an’ trusts you, same as me, an’ she knows she hurt you when that was the last thing she’d ever wanna do.” She gave him a poke in the stomach. “I’m not sayin’ you shouldn’t talk to her about it, I’m just sayin’ – don’t go into the talk thinkin’ it’s cause of somethin’ you’re missin’, or somethin’ you did. When you live in that kinda fear for so long, some things is just – ingrained.”

Sighing, James pulled her into a hug and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “Thank you, dear. It really has been a dreadful three months without you, you know. Please don’t do that again.”

“Not if I can at all help it,” Eggsy promised. The kettle whistled, so they busied themselves getting mugs together. She bumped his hip with hers. “Thanks, by the way. For lookin’ after all of us while I was sick. I’m really glad you’re my family.”

“Well of course you are. I am devilishly charming, not to mention handsome.”

“An’ so modest, too,” she said dryly. “Truly, you’s the definition of the perfect gentleman.”

“I know.” James preened, fixing his hair and shooting her a wink.

They brought the tea back into the other living room. There was a definite damper on the atmosphere, and Michelle was clearly anxious when she looked at James. She was reassured only slightly when James handed her the mug of tea with a kiss to her cheek. Eggsy could see that there were a couple conversations that wanted to happen. James and Harry needed to talk and figure out what the next move would be, given the new information. James and Michelle needed to talk about the burner phone that Michelle had. And Harry probably wanted to talk to her about her role in whatever was coming up. After a while of somewhat stilted conversation about Daisy, Eggsy offered to show her mother the painting she’d been working on before her ‘illness’.

Michelle eagerly agreed and followed her down to the basement. They barely glanced at the painting, which Eggsy had obviously not worked on in months, and which Michelle had actually already seen. Instead, Michelle started pacing. “Does he hate me?” she blurted out.

“Mum! Of _course not_. Don’t be daft, that man is head over heels for you.” Exasperated, she hopped up to sit on the washer. “He was upset, yeah, but he ain’t angry, an’ I doubt there’s anything you could do to make him hate you. I mean, you shoulda told him but. I think he understands. Just talk to him. If you got a wad a cash around, or anythin’ else like that, tell him. He gets how fucked up life is, he might even help with a runnin’ kit.”

“I din’t even think about,” Michelle moaned. “It’s just – what you do, yeah? I din’t even think. I never do.”

“Course you do! Mum, he gets it. I know he acts the airhead, but he gets it. You got the phone cause you’s always thinkin’. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you’s thinkin’ about all the ways life can turn to shit. Just talk it out with him, be calm an’ honest. I know you told him a lot o’ what Dean done to us – he’ll understand.”

“He’s the best man I ever met, besides your father,” Michelle said quietly, pressing a kiss to Daisy’s head. “I can’t stand the idea I hurt him.”

“It’s hard,” Eggsy agreed. “Even with Harry, sometimes. Cause I don’t – I got used to hidin’. Used to havin’ to do for myself, ‘cause when you let someone do for you, they can use it against you. But it’s good with him. I can let him do for me when he wants to or needs to, an’ I know he ain’t ever gonna use it against me. An’ it feels so good, mum, lettin’ him. Relaxin’ an’ lettin’ him take care o’ things when I’m tired or fed up or whatever. Used to make me feel weak, like I was draggin’ him down or somethin’, an’ I always felt like I had to pay it back right away. It ain’t like that. Try it – James won’t let you down.”

“He never has,” Michelle agreed. She glanced upwards. “Feel like I set the cat among the pigeons, a bit. This Valentine – he up to something?”

Eggsy bit her lip. “Rich man like that don’t give shit out to billions for no reason,” she hedged. Michelle looked frustrated for a moment then sighed and nodded. She was used to the secrets and lies, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. They were as honest with her as they could be, which she knew and appreciated. She usually didn’t ask and put them in the spot of having to lie or evade. “C’mon, ain’t much to keep lookin’ at down here.”

“We should get goin’ anyway,” Michelle agreed, although reluctantly. “It’s about Daisy’s nap time.”

By the looks of things, James and Harry had finished speaking, so they weren’t interrupting anything when they returned. She and Harry waved them off, and when the car was gone and the door closed, she looked expectantly up at Harry.

Harry nodded. “The cards have to be tied in somehow. It’s time to make a move. Henry is about to donate an obscene amount of money – it will get his attention. And hopefully a meeting.”

“Best get started with those exercises of Merlin’s, then. Need to be in fighting trim sooner rather than later.” Eggsy leaned against him for a few moments. “When this is done, love, can we take a proper holiday? Just the two of us, no responsibilities for a bit?”

“You may depend upon it, darling,” Harry promised.

She could see how torn Harry was over the next couple of days. On the one hand, she needed to get back in shape. They both knew it. On the other, he still very much wanted to wrap her up and pamper her into a puddle. She let him shoulder as much as she feasibly could, leaving the household chores to him and melting into the pampering whenever she wasn’t running through the toning exercises. He needed that holiday as much as she did.

He got word that Valentine was hosting a gala for his top donors and Henry Devere had made the list. He was an absolute vision in his tuxedo, and she was hard pressed to let him go on his own. But she was still on medical leave and Merlin would have had her hide if she’d gone with – even if Harry would have agreed to it to begin with. She had to content herself with watching Harry’s feed from their home office. Merlin was doing the same, she knew.

It was almost impossible to not jump up and race across town to the place Valentine had bought for his stay in London and his gala when she saw that Harry was the only guest. There were no overt threats made through the evening’s odd conversation and even odder meal, but she was absolutely positive that Valentine was on to them. But he also seemed to be fishing for something, so he likely didn’t know how much they already knew. If he had, she was sure he would have either poisoned Harry or his valet/bodyguard would have gone for him with the wicked blades she used as prosthetics.

Harry agreed with her when he returned home after dropping the tux off at the shop, tired and a bit frustrated that he hadn’t been able to get more out of the man. They agreed to head into HQ to talk it over with Merlin the next day. She might be on leave, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be there at all.

Since she _was_ on medical leave, though, she decided to dress down. No point in giving Arthur the impression she was trying to come back to work early and giving him the excuse to yell at her. Dressing room one was occupied when they got the shop, though, so they killed a bit of time checking out some the upgraded offerings from the tech division. The new lighter grenades had a bit more oomph to them, apparently, while not being a lick bigger. And the new shoes they’d designed for her and Roxy had a second blade in the low heel, a sleek little stiletto with a paralytic to go with the toe blade that had the neurotoxin. She had to practice with it a bit to get the different release motion down, but she was looking forward to using it next chance she could get.

When they left dressing room three, they were both caught slightly off guard to see Valentine exiting room one with the prosthetic bearing woman right behind him. Eggsy kept her face blandly interested while Harry smoothly took the lead, dismissing her as his new valet. She both wanted to kick him and kiss him for his ‘locked up’ comment – who wouldn’t see that as a threat? But since Valentine was already on to them, and likely knew or suspected that they knew that, it wasn’t as much of a tip off as it might have been. Hopefully he’d take the bait anyway.

Roxy and Merlin were both there when they arrived. It was a largely useless conversation, though. Everyone agreed Valentine was onto Harry. Everyone agreed they needed to get their hands on one of the implants. Everyone agreed the SIM cards were suspicious as hell. But there was nothing they could do about Valentine knowing about Harry, and they didn’t know who all had the implants. They just didn’t know enough yet. They needed to get a bug on Valentine, and if he didn’t take the bait with the hat shop, then one of them would have to try to get close to Valentine another way. And it would either be Eggsy breaking in somewhere or possibly Roxy ‘bumping into’ him at some other social function, which meant Eggsy had to finish getting back in shape or Valentine had to let slip another social engagement he planned to attend.

She and Harry left HQ no further along than they’d been when they’d arrived. They swung by James’ and her mum’s place, ostensibly to get baby proofing tips, but mostly so that Harry could provide the very brief update to James.

That afternoon, though, they found that Valentine _had_ taken the bait. More, he was talking freely to his companion. Harry called James over to listen to the relevant part of the recording, and they were off. Eggsy had a bad feeling about the whole business. As Harry dressed in the dark blue pinstripe, she came up and did his tie for him, smoothing it down his chest. “Be careful, Harry,” she ordered quietly. “We know this has to be some kind of trap.”

“A test, certainly. A trap? Perhaps,” he allowed. “That depends on if he knew the hat was bugged and talked on purpose.”

“My gut is sayin’ trap. Just – be careful, yeah? Please.”

He pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead then her lips. “We will be, darling. I promise.”

She walked him down to where James was waiting by the door and poked him sharply in the chest. “You be careful,” she ordered, rather less quietly this time. “An’ don’t forget your glasses, yeah? I expect you _both_ to come back.”

James gave her a cocky grin. “But of course, dear girl. Wouldn’t dream of doing anything else. You worry about you – I’m certain you’ve forgotten how to cook with Harry doting on you so much.”

Eggsy snorted. “Just for that, I’ll make you a special Christmas dinner, just for you,” she promised sweetly.

She was restless after they’d left. She tried to occupy herself around the house with JB, working out, and even painting, but nothing could distract her from the gnawing of dread in her gut. When her glasses beeped with a message from Merlin that Harry and James had arrived, she fairly flew up the stairs to get to the office.

Harry and James had decided to split up. James had gone into the church that Valentine had talked about, while Harry was strolling around the town, attempting to be inconspicuous as looked for signs of either Valentine or his people. Eggsy opened her laptop to stream both their feeds at the same time, and so got treated to the same hate filled ‘preaching’ that James was having to sit through. She couldn’t blame him when, after a good chunk of time with nothing happening, he got fed up enough to leave.

Everything went to hell when he did, though. A mousy woman followed him out, loudly berating him for leaving in the middle of the sermon. James paused a few meters from the door. Then he pulled his gun and turned, aiming straight at the woman’s head. Eggsy toggled on the microphone. “Lancelot, what are you doing?” He didn’t seem to hear her and just – pulled the trigger. Somehow, that seemed to be the breaking point and the entire congregation degenerated into a murderous brawl.

She had never seen James quite so deadly as he was then, mowing down everyone who crossed his field of vision. “Lancelot, Lancelot, stop! What are you doing? James!” Eggsy tried desperately to get through to him, as did Merlin.

“Gareth, what is happening?” Harry demanded. She looked at his feed and saw that he was rapidly heading for the church.

Merlin answered. “Something’s wrong with Lancelot. With everyone. They’re all killing each other.”

“I’m on my way.”

“Galahad, don’t!” Merlin ordered. “We have no idea what triggered this. If you get too close, it could affect you too.”

“I can’t just leave him in there!” Harry protested.

“You have to. Do you want to face him if you’re affected too? Do you want to kill him?” Merlin said ruthlessly.

“He’s right,” Eggsy choked out, wincing away from the brutality on the screen. “He ain’t thinking right now, Harry. Not about anything except killing. I never seen him like this. He’s never been this efficient – but you’re still better. Just – hang back. It…won’t last much longer.”

“Fuck!” Harry stopped where he was. He could see the church, and even saw a body get thrown out a window, but whatever was causing the carnage wasn’t affecting him where he was.

They all waited the last couple, agonizing minutes. When James was the last man standing, the violence in his frame seemed to just drain out of him. His feed panned around the inside of the church, the only sound his ragged breathing. He started walking slowly towards the door again.

Down the block, shrouded from the street but still with that view of the church, Harry’s feed picked up movement from a house across from the church. Valentine, the woman, and two mercenaries stepped out and made their way towards the church.

Merlin cut in. “Lancelot, Valentine is heading your way with his bodyguard and two mercenaries. Galahad is less than a block away as back up. Are you with us again?”

James nodded slowly. “I am. We have to know what that was.” His voice was subdued, but still strong. “I have never experienced anything like it.” He opened the door and stepped out.

Valentine was smiling. “Hey there, Kingsman! Where’s your friend?”

“What did you do to me?” James demanded. “I had no control at all!”

Valentine proceeded with a truly terrifying explanation that boiled down to his SIM cards could make people try to kill other people with no rhyme or reason – like in the church. But on a global scale. Anyone not somehow protected from the signal was both murderer and murder victim waiting to happen.

Valentine still had that odd smile on his face as he started talking about old spy movies, like he had with Harry at the ‘gala’. James was having none of it.

“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” James spat. “You’re insane.”

“Aw, that’s a shame. See, in those kinds of movies, this would be where I tell you my whole plan, then come up with a convoluted way to kill you, and then you’d come up with an equally convoluted way to escape.”

“Why don’t you try it with me, then?” Harry called out.

Eggsy switched her gaze to his feed as he stepped out from behind a parked van, raised his gun, and shot both mercenaries in the head. Valentine flinched, his bodyguard immediately moved to block him with her body, and then Valentine pulled a gun from his pocket and fired wildly at James and then Harry. James fell to the ground. Harry did not.

Harry fired almost as wildly towards Valentine and the bodyguard as he raced over to James’ side, but the pair were fleeing without looking back and none of his bullets seemed to have connected.

Eggsy gripped the desk as Harry knelt beside James. She watched his empty hand move to James’ neck, looking for a pulse. There was blood spreading out on the ground under his head. “Fuck,” Harry whispered. “Fuck!” this time a shout. “He’s gone.”

“No!” Eggsy clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle any more screams. She doubled over, one hand around her stomach, the other still over her mouth as sobs worked painfully in her throat.

“Gareth! Pull yourself together,” Harry snapped. Her gaze snapped up – Harry had never taken that kind of tone with her before. “I’ll need you as backup – medical leave is over.”

She swallowed a few times. “Yes, Galahad,” she finally managed. She closed both laptops, cutting off the connections to their feeds. For several minutes, all she could do was sit there and shake, tears running down her cheeks. JB wandered in to investigate the source of the odd sounds, and she picked him up and let his fur absorb the tears leaking continuously down her face.


	8. Chapter 8

After a while, Harry’s final words began to replay in her mind. The tone had been beyond out of character, and she was hard pressed to reconcile it. So too was him calling her backup. They all generally had backup weapons, but they never referred to people as backup. Their extraction teams were always extractions teams. When they partnered, then they were partners. The terms were automatic – ingrained. Even during a time of stress, Harry wouldn’t naturally use the term. He also couldn’t cancel her medical leave. Only Merlin could.  It just didn’t make sense – unless he was trying to tell her something? But what could he mean by backup -

The last time James and Michelle had been over, on Eggsy’s first actual, official day of medical leave, flashed in her mind. The phones – the backup phones! She plopped JB back on the floor and flew down two sets of stairs to her little painting corner. Down under her sealed paints was her old phone. She turned it on and waited for it to boot with shaking hands. She almost started sobbing again when there was a text message from an unknown number waiting for her, sent just a couple minutes ago.

_J alive – bad head injury, should recover. Don't let A know._

Eggsy wiped her eyes and texted back: _Thank god. Omw to shop. Will update. Need a lift home?_

She kept the phone on her as she dashed up the stairs again. She changed as fast as she ever had, sliding into one of her more severe suits. As she tied her shoes, the phone vibrated with a response: _No. when j is secure, will fly home. BE CAREFUL. Love you._

 _I love you too,_ she sent. Then she was off, burner tucked into her jacket pocket. She wore no glasses, but had put on some of her Kingsman jewelry. Arthur had never paid much attention to it, either on her or Roxy. She doubted he’d recognize it for what it was, and she very much wanted this confrontation recorded.

When she arrived at the shop and headed upstairs, she passed a couple other agents on their way out. From the looks on their faces, they knew James was dead, and expressed their sympathy as she walked by. She threw open the doors to the round table room to find Arthur at the head of it, brandy at his elbow, holding court like the king he really wasn’t. “Arthur, James is dead,” she said, easily choking on grief that hadn’t faded as much as she’d like.

“Lancelot is dead,” Arthur corrected. “And thus, we have just drunk a toast to him.”

“Then you know what Valentine is planning! He can activate those cards all over the world! Millions will die – billions!”

“Sit down, girl.” Arthur gestured at Harry’s seat to his right. Eggsy rounded the table and sat, staring at him with bloodshot eyes. “We have the recording. We will pass the evidence to the proper authorities and Valentine will be arrested. And a fine legacy for our fallen friend it is, too.”

“And that’s it? Nothing more? He killed one of us!”

Arthur summoned that fake sympathetic smile that she remembered from the final test and patted her hand. “Come – I didn’t wish to pull you from your medical leave, but as you’re here, it’s appropriate for us to raise a toast.” He conveniently still had two glasses at his elbow and filled each with the old brandy they reserved for when a Kingsman died. As he leaned, she noticed a thin, white scar behind his ear. She scrubbed her face with her hands as though rubbing away tears, then gestured at the paintings on the wall. “Those all Kingsman, then? No one’s ever said.” she asked.

Arthur turned automatically to look at where she pointed. Quick as a wink, she swapped the glasses as he said, “Yes indeed, founding members. Now then.” He turned back and lifted the glass nearest him. Eggsy took the other. “To Lancelot – one of our finest Kingsman.”

“To Lancelot,” she intoned. She threw back the brandy and took note of the oh so satisfied look that flashed over his face as he drank. “Toasting him twice, Arthur – bending the rules a bit there, yeah?”

“For you,” he agreed.

She curled her lip. “I doubt that. Valentine got to you – somehow,” she said, disgust tinting her words.

Arthur sat back. “Once he explained, I understood,” he told her. She let him ramble out the same virus analogy that Valentine had given Arnold.

She rolled her eyes. “So he gets to pick and choose, does he? All his rich mates – they get saved. And anyone else he wants, whether they agree with him or not.”

“And you, Eggsy. Harry would never agree without you, I have come to accept that. I don’t believe you’ve used one of these before. Do you know what it is?” He slid one of the poison pens out from under the lip of the tray. He primed it as he held it up.

“Of course. You click it – I die. Thought that brandy tasted a bit shit,” she taunted.

“Excellent. You have a choice to make, Eggsy. Join us in the new world or,” he nodded at the pen, “not.”

Eggsy could hardly believe he was making it all so easy. “And Geraint and Caradoc, have they agreed as well? You’s all been donating to Valentine’s foundation.”

“They are intelligent men. They understood right away, as I knew they would. They were both my proposals in the past.”

“Huh. Well, then, here’s my answer: I’d rather be with James, thanks – and so would Harry!”

Arthur dropped the fake smile. “So be it.” He clicked the activation button.

Eggsy picked up her glass and twirled it, smiling a little bit at Arthur as he stared at her in growing confusion. “You never did like to pay attention to anything you thought beneath you. Kingsman’s taught me a lot – but sleight of hand and not drinking just anything – that I had already!” Arthur jerked, face contorting with pain. She kept smiling as he convulsed and clawed at the table, hissing out, “You miserable fucking gutter slag,” with his final breath. She hopped up and snagged the pen. The chip under his skin was easy to extract. As she wrapped it in the silk pocket square she snagged out of his breast pocket, his phone started to vibrate with a countdown to V-Day and coordinates to a safe place to wait it out. “Fuck me!”

She pocketed both as she ran for the stairs, tapping the decorative ear cuff that doubled as her communications. “Merlin! Tell me you’re at HQ, bruv.”

“Eggsy?” Merlin’s startled voice sounded in her ear as she hit the ground floor and burst into the shop. She waved at Andrew as she headed for fitting room one. “What’s going on?”

“I’m on my way down. We got a big fuckin’ problem,” she told him. “The countdown has started. We got hours before Valentine activates the cards.” She shifted impatiently as the lift made its slow way down. To occupy herself, she shot Harry a few rapid texts over the burner phones, informing her of what was happening. “Check my feed for the last ten minutes,” she said, thumbs working. “Arthur was definitely a traitor, got his confession an’ everything. Geraint and Caradoc too.”

“Buggering fuck.”

Merlin was waiting to greet her when she stepped off the train, Roxy at his side. She waved the old phone at him. “Harry’s waiting to hear where to meet us. We heading right for Valentine’s hideout or what?”

“No. I have a plan. I contacted Percival. He’ll work on apprehending Geraint and Caradoc. We are going somewhere else. Let’s go.” Merlin took the burner from her to text Harry as they headed into the hangar. While Merlin got them airborne, Eggsy took a minute to send a text from her main phone to her mother: _had to leave. Please collect JB from the house and look after him for me. Stay inside and lock the doors and don’t come out until I or someone we trust calls you._ Then she shut it off to poke at the weird _thing_ that was sitting in the main cabin.

“What the fuck is this?” she wondered, looking at Roxy.

“I haven’t a clue,” Roxy admitted. “Merlin helped me load it after you made contact.”

“Huh.” She wiggled what looked like a joystick poking out. She couldn’t picture what it would even look like when all the pieces were together.

Merlin joined them in the main cabin once they were cruising and autopilot could handle things for a bit. “That is a prototype personal transatmospheric vehicle. It’s from Reagan’s Star Wars program. Fairly basic, but it should work for our needs.”

“And what are our needs?” Roxy asked.

“One of you will go up and use it to take out one of Valentine’s satellites. We need to break the chain. It will take him at least an hour to reroute the chain to get his signal going. That will buy us time for Harry and Eggsy to get me into his mainframe. I want to strip every bit of information out of it and then we can destroy it. Even if he has a backup system, it will take him some time to reach it, which we will **not** let him do.”

“So who’s going up?” Eggsy asked, poking idly at another odd looking part.

Roxy snorted. “Me, of course.” Eggsy shot her a look. “Oh, don’t be foolish. You’re better than I am at close quarters fighting. If anything goes wrong, you need to be in there. I’ve done enough jumps that I should manage.” She swallowed, looking a bit pale around the edges. “I **will** manage.” Merlin took her hand and brushed a kiss over her knuckles. She managed a mostly confident smile for him.

As they neared their target site, Roxy slipped into the back to change into her Halo suit. Eggsy took a few minutes of her own to fix her hair, taking it out of the somewhat sloppy bun she’d put it in and swiftly braiding it out of the way. She swapped the jewelry that was a bit too fancy for the business suit for a pair of glasses. With her ring in place, a lighter in her pocket, and her oxfords on her feet, she felt reasonably ready to go in with Harry as his personal assistant or valet, whichever cover he chose. Her only regret was wearing the old style oxfords rather than a pair of the new ones with the paralytic stiletto in the heel – she really wanted to try that out.

Harry and James had taken one of the smaller, fastest jets from Kingsman’s hangar and had beaten them to the rendezvous site. Eggsy rushed out to meet him in the snow. He had blood on his suit. She touched one of the dried spatters and looked up anxiously. Harry pulled her close for a brief, reassuring kiss. “He **will** be alright, Eggsy,” he promised. “I got him to a hospital. He was conscious by the time we arrived and spitting mad that he couldn’t join us. The bullet grazed him, so he bled profusely, and he has a wicked concussion, so he couldn’t fly just yet. He’s in a safe place with one of our jammers. Hopefully it will be enough to block that signal should anyone with a SIM card get too close.”

“Good.” She allowed herself a moment to rest her head on his chest, then stepped back. “I think I saw a spare suit for you in the plane. Why don’t you go get changed while Merlin and I get Roxy going?”

“Excellent idea.” Harry dropped another quick kiss to her lips before striding towards their plane.

By the time he’d changed, she and Merlin had gotten Roxy into the bulky device and the balloons were filling rapidly. Roxy’s breathing was controlled, though she was pale inside her helmet. Over the years Roxy had worked hard to overcome her fear of flying and making jumps. She’d gotten certified to fly every plane Kingsman owned. When she was done, she would be able to make her way from wherever she landed back to the plane and fly herself anywhere she’d need to go. Eggsy gave her friend a fast squeeze to her hands then stepped back for Merlin to have a bit of privacy before the balloons inflated enough to take her up. Harry was waiting on the jet steps and put a comforting hand on her shoulder as they watched Roxy lift off.

Once Merlin got the three of them airborne again, they finally sat down with the chip she’d dug out of Chester King’s neck. Merlin cleaned it up and fiddled with it for a while, until he finally sat back.

“What have we got?” Harry asked, leaning forward in his seat.

“It would seem that it emits a counter signal to the waves that target the aggression centers of the brain. So Valentine’s chosen would remain unaffected. What I doubt he told them is that it also grants him the ability to super heat the soft tissue as he likes.”

“Professor Arnold,” Eggsy said, understanding.

“Quite.”

“Can we use it to our advantage?” Harry asked.

“I don’t see how. At least, not until we get into Valentine’s mainframe. The command codes are likely stored there. It would have to be a very specific sort of signal, otherwise he’d run the risk of a random garage door opener exploding his chosen.”

Eggsy grimaced at the imagery. She didn’t object, in theory, to exploding the heads of every sick bastard who had agreed to Valentine’s holocaust, but thinking about it happening on some random street where just anyone could witness it didn’t sit well.

They got closer to their target and went over the plan. “Harry, you’ll go in as Chester King,” Merlin said. “Eggsy will go as your personal assistant. I need access to Valentine’s closed network, so find someone on a computer and plug this into it.” He passed Harry a small usb drive. “Once I’m in, I’ll take the information and wipe the whole system. Try not to let Valentine see either of you. He knows your faces.”

“Understood.” Harry slipped the device in his pocket. In the cockpit, an alert began to beep. Merlin hurried up front to bring them in.

Eggsy took the opportunity to plant herself in Harry’s lap for a couple minutes. Careful to not muss his hair, she pulled his head down for a long, deep kiss. His hands were reassuring spots of warmth on her hips. They broke apart only when they felt the plane descending for a landing. “Let’s go kick some arse, my love,” she suggested.

“It will be an absolute pleasure, darling.” They rose to join Merlin in the cockpit to watch as Merlin guides the plane into the side of a mountain. When the plane shivers to a stop, Merlin turned to them. “Good luck,” he said solemnly.

Eggsy assumed her place behind and to the side as Harry strolled down the stairs and presented Chester’s mobile for inspection. They were both wanded for weapons and then shown into a large, lavishly appointed and decorated cavern. It was filled with people dressed for a party. “Guess you finally get that gala,” Eggsy whispered. High above them in a glass encased room, they could see Valentine and his dark haired bodyguard.  

A staff member approached to take drink orders. Harry ordered a martini, just the way he liked it – gin, not vodka, and stirred – while Eggsy demurred. “Split up,” Harry ordered. “We need to find a way into that room. I’ll find a computer.”

Eggsy split off with the slightest of nods. She found another staff person and asked about a restroom. She’d interrupted him on his way somewhere, so as she’d hoped, he simply gave her directions rather than escorting her. She left the party room and entered the maze of corridors, looking for either a hallway that slanted up or an actual set of stairs.

She found Charlie Hesketh instead, who appeared to be returning, ironically enough, from the bathroom. They stopped and she could tell that it took him a second to recognize her. “You! What the hell are you doing here, you bitch?” he demanded.

She lunged forward, driving her fist into his face as she’d so often wished to do. She added a fast knee to the groin and finished by pressing the contact of her filigree ring and jabbing it into his neck. He went down like a sack of potatoes. Swearing under her breath, she dragged his limp body back the way he’d come. After a fast check to make sure the bathroom was empty, she hauled him into one of the stalls and draped him over the toilet as though he’d passed out while being sick. She used his body as a step stool to boost herself over the wall into the next stall and left him there. “Nicely done,” Merlin said in her ear. “Was that fun? I always wanted to do that to the little prick.”

“Felt damn good,” she admitted.

“Harry’s spotted someone on a computer. I should be into the system in a few moments. Hold position, and I’ll give you directions.”

Eggsy slipped into the ladies’ room next door and pretended to fix her hair. After a couple minutes, he said, “I’m in. Okay, out the door and take a right. Take the first right corridor, down at the end will be a set of stairs. Their room is the only one on that level. Cameras show two guards at the bottom of the stairs that you’ll need to remove.”

“On it.” Eggsy walked out and followed Merlin’s directions. As she turned down the corridor to the stairs, she affected a somewhat embarrassed expression and raised a hand to the guards when she spotted them. She picked up her pace. “Hello? I am so sorry, I can’t believe I did this. I have a terrible sense of direction,” she babbled. “I’m afraid we only just arrived, and I got all turned around when I left the restroom. Can you direct me back to the rest of the guests?” The babble kept them at ease, and she saw them trade amused look at the lost little woman approaching them. When they looked back at her, she was in range. As she brought down her waving hand, she gripped her wrist and activated the darts. They both went down with a faint clatter, assault rifles limp in their laps. Eggsy stepped neatly over them and hurried up the stairs. “Bugger.”

“Indeed.” A vault thick door greeted her, with a biometric keypad beside it. Without the right handprint, no one was getting in that way. Unless they had a rocket launcher. “More good news. His mainframe is also biometric. I can access subsystems, but the control for the SIM cards is out of reach. I can’t turn it off from here. We need to destroy that console.”

“Eggsy, get back down here,” Harry ordered. “We’ll come up with a new plan.”

“How’s Roxy doing?” Eggsy asked as she complied. She paused long enough to drag each of the unconscious guards up the stairs a ways, so they’d at least be out of sight of any patrols. Their absence would probably cause alarm by itself, but hopefully anyone looking would take a few minutes to search for them before that.

“She’s launched the missile. We should have impact in about thirty seconds. She’s had a bit of a fright, but she’s doing fine,” Merlin said.

“Good girl,” Eggsy cheered quietly.

Harry met her near the door to the party room. “We need to get up into that room. Ideas?”

“We just need to destroy the console,” Eggsy corrected. She bit her lip, the grenade a heavy weight in her pocket. “I brought a lighter, but we’ll have to break the glass. It’ll cause an awful ruckus.”

“We’ll have a ruckus soon enough. There’s a patrol approaching the stairs. The missing guards are about to be noticed,” Merlin warned.

“Blend in,” Harry advised. “One of them may come down to investigate.”

They waited, apparently at their ease, chatting amiably about nothing much. Moments later, an alarm sounded, and booted feet could be heard running outside the party room. The guests started looking around, clumping closer together in fear. Harry and Eggsy joined one such group, pretending to be as quietly panicked as the others, everyone asking each other what the problem could be. They kept their heads down and backs towards that glass encased room.

The alarms abruptly cut out and Valentine’s voice sounded from the speakers in a grandiose speech as he began the countdown early. “Don’t worry,” Merlin assured them. “The satellite is gone.”

The countdown ended with nothing happening. Again, the guests began to murmur to each other. While they were all distracted, Harry took the opportunity to lead her out of the room. “We need weapons,” he murmured. “We’ll return to the plane and arm up.”

They were brought up short by a pair of guards. “I’m sorry, folks, you’ll need to return to the party,” one of them said.

“I’m just returning to my plane for a few moments. My assistant neglected to bring the gift I brought for Mr. Valentine,” Harry said smoothly.

“You’ll have a chance to do that later. I have to insist that you return to the party.” He put a hand to his earpiece, obviously listening to something. Suddenly his eyes widened and his hand snapped back down to the automatic strapped over his chest.

Eggsy dove to the left as Harry dove to the right, dodging the burst of machine gun fire. The second guard was quick to follow the lead of the first. Eggsy rolled to her feet and covered her head with her arm, feeling the sting of bullets hitting it. She rushed the guard nearest her and took his legs out from under him with a leg sweep. She dropped down on his chest and grabbed his head with both hands. A fast, hard twist broke his neck and allowed her to take his gun. Harry had done something similar and they both stood up, now much better armed.

“We have a problem! Valentine is moving someone else’s satellite in to fill the hole. We have two minutes before he can activate the signal.”

As one, they turned to head back the way they’d come. They were blocked by a good dozen guards converging on them from that direction. “It’s laid out like a wheel,” Merlin said. “There’s another door. Move it!” They ran, following Merlin’s directions. But every corridor they turned down that would take them back to the center was filled with guards, and even with the automatics, they were outmatched. They were being herded away. “Fuck, they’re closing off your route. They’ve got you in a pinch.”

Heavy gunfire started in front of and behind them. They ducked into a recessed doorway. Heart pounding, Eggsy clutched at Harry’s jacket. “Merlin, we’re fucked,” she said. “We need a way out!”

“As do I,” Merlin told her.

Eggsy tilted her face up to Harry’s. “I love you,” she said solemnly. “I love you so much. The day you carried me out of that warehouse was the best thing that ever happened to me. You’ve made me happy every day since.”

“Likewise, my darling. I never knew such joy as I have with you. No regrets,” Harry said. He bent to kiss her. She held his head, hand pressed just behind his ear as they kissed.

She pulled away suddenly. “Hey Merlin – remember those chips that you said you couldn’t use until you got into his closed system? Can you turn them on?” Harry’s eyes widened. She grinned. “They all got ‘em,” she said. “Saw the scars on the two I darted.”

“My brilliant, beautiful girl,” Harry breathed. He kissed her again, fierce and joyous, as Merlin muttered in their ears. They kept kissing until they heard the sounds of the explosions. When they broke apart, it was just in time to see a chunk of skull go flying through the air in front of them.

 A hand pounded on the metal door behind them. Curious, Eggsy reached up and slid the panel aside. “Oi! You’re that princess that went missing,” she blurted, astonished.

“No shit. Get me out of here!”

“Soon,” Eggsy promised. “First, we gotta go save the world.”

The princess looked her up and down, then flicked the same look over Harry. “There’ll be something fun in it for you if you do,” she told them, lips curled in a lascivious smirk.

“We’ll keep that in mind,” Harry said diplomatically. He slid the panel closed and grabbed her hand. “Let’s go, darling.”

Eggsy ran out after him. “Wait til I tell Roxy we got propositioned by a princess!”

“We aren’t taking her up on it!” Harry said sternly.

“Fuck no, I ain’t sharin’ you with nobody. Still, bet Roxy’s never been hit on by royalty.”

“Hurry the fuck up, the satellite is in position!” Merlin yelled.

They burst into the party room. It was a truly macabre sight, with dozens of headless, well dressed corpses littering the place. The song changed as Valentine’s voice rang out again. “You stupid fucks, did you really think I’d put one of those things in my own head? This is happening!”

Eggsy brought her gun up as Harry did. They both fired, and the two figures in the room hit the floor. The song stopped. Beside her, Harry’s gun clicked empty. Her gun wasn’t far behind, but it was enough to shatter the glass. She dipped her hand into her pocket and pulled out the lighter. She primed it and threw. As she threw, the bodyguard leaped out the broken window towards them. Incredibly, she was able to bat the grenade to the side, where it exploded harmlessly against the stone wall. She landed and started firing, forcing Eggsy to throw herself to the side. Harry darted in from the side and managed to take the gun from her. Before he could use it, either on her or Valentine, the woman turned and kicked, sheering off the end of the barrel.

“Go!” Eggsy barked. “Get another gun! I’ll take care of this bitch.” She rushed in with a series of blows, but had to keep dodging and blocking herself as the woman kept coming at her with those blades. They almost danced around the floor, and Eggsy was worried. This woman was as good as she was. Just as quick and just as agile and limber. Further, the way most people underestimated Eggsy just wasn’t happening. She managed to land a kick to the woman’s chest that knocked her on her back, but it also knocked Eggsy onto hers. They both got to their feet. The music resumed, and a dark smirk spread over the woman’s face.

“We’re back up! This is great, Gazelle! Are they dead yet?” Valentine yelled.

“Not yet!” the woman yelled back.

“Stop playing with your food!”

They started their run at the same time. Eggsy aimed to the side as she jumped, twisting in mid-air. She clicked her heels and shot out her foot, only needing to graze the woman’s skin, but having to avoid getting impaled at the same time. Something brushed her neck as they flew past each other. Eggsy landed and rolled to her feet. Gazelle skidded, blades screeching across the floor. She twisted and stood up to face Eggsy. Eggsy dipped her hand down into her blouse and fished out the emerald pendant that Harry had given her that first Christmas. She rarely took it off, except when working. She’d been in such a rush when she’d dressed that she hadn’t remembered to remove it.

She dangled it from the broken chain as Harry burst back into the room, another automatic in his hands. Gazelle smirked at her as she held the chain. Eggsy smirked back as Harry opened fire. Gazelle couldn’t even turn to watch him. Lifting her arm, her mouth fell open as the creeping toxin moved rapidly through her body. She collapsed as Valentine, body riddled with bullets, fell backwards out of the shattered window the floor. Together, she and Harry approached his body.

He was still breathing, eyes open. He kind of smiled when he saw them standing above them. “Hey, what’s up?” he coughed, blood spraying from between his lips. “Is this the part where you say some really bad pun?”

“You’re hardly worth the effort,” Harry said coldly.

“Aw, play fair,” Valentine pouted. He coughed again, spraying more blood, then went still and limp.

“Bloody well done, both of you!” Merlin cheered.

Harry turned to her and frowned. He pulled out his pocket square and dabbed at her bleeding lip. Eggsy let him blot the blood away, then held up her necklace. “She broke the chain,” she mourned.

“And rather tore your blouse as well,” he noted, fingers trailing gently over the revealed skin.

“Could have been worse.” Eggsy looked around, seeing the carnage, remembering the devastation of the church. “So much worse.”

“Things are likely to be unpleasant for a while longer,” he warned her. “We have no idea how many people in power just lost their heads.”

“We’ll manage. And far better than we would have if Valentine had his way.” She took his proffered arm and walked with him out of that vile room. “We got a lot of people to get out. What are we going to do with them all?”

“We’ll cram as many as we can onto available planes and transport them to the nearest major airport,” Harry decided. “Merlin, would you have Roxy join us? Another pilot would be helpful. We’ve no notion if anyone locked up here is able to fly.”

Eggsy sighed. “If you’d just certify me to fly,” she began.

“No!” Merlin yelped. “You fly like you drive, for fuck’s sake, Eggsy.”

Harry didn’t agree with him. But he didn’t argue, either.


	9. Chapter 9

They worked on releasing the people who had refused to get on board with Valentine’s insane plan. As it turned out, there were actually several pilots among them, as Valentine had locked up whatever personal staff had accompanied the people he was courting, which included pilots for private jets. Once Roxy arrived, they had enough pilots and planes to evacuate everyone, though the planes were a bit crowded. They wouldn’t be able to drop people in their individual home cities, but it was agreed that getting them to their countries, or a nearby friendly neighbor, was sufficient, and the various celebrities and politicians and royalty would be able to summon their staff to meet them for an escort home. The academics, who weren’t wealthy enough to have their own planes, much less staff to come fetch them, were grouped with their countrymen with the promise from their leaders that they would be taken home.

On their own plane, Eggsy danced attendance on members of the royal family, including the Queen and Prince Phillip, along with their oldest grandson, his wife, and their young son. No one mentioned the crown prince and his wife, and Eggsy was sure as shit not going to ask about it. They also had their prime minister, whom Harry knew. It rather confirmed Eggsy’s long suspicion that their government knew _something_ of them, and simply pretended not to for the sake of efficiency and keeping them from getting bogged down in the politics and red tape that often hampered their more official and known counterparts.

Once Eggsy had everyone settled with blankets and whatever food and drink they requested, she joined Harry in the cockpit. “I was able to make contact with James,” he said without preamble, waving his mobile. “He was well out of it during the brief periods of the signal’s activation. He’s safe, still.”

Eggsy pulled her phone out and turned it back on. “Good. I’ll be able to let mum know he’ll be home, just late.” She dialed her mother’s number.

Michelle picked up after one ring. “Eggsy, babe, what the hell is goin’ on? Where are you? Have you seen the news, the whole world went mad! There were people fighting on the street, right outside the house. Had to take Daisy and the dog to the basement to hide til it was over. Are you okay? Where’s James, his mobile goes right to voicemail.”

“Mum, mum, calm down. I’m fine. James is okay,” she assured her. “The crazy has stopped, an’ it won’t start again.” Eggsy had taken the time to run back and collect another grenade and blown the console up, just to be extra safe. “James did get himself a bit of a head injury, but he’s okay. I think his mobile broke or something,” she lied. “We’ll be home soon, an’ I promise, we’ll fetch James home soon as we can.”

“He’s really okay?” Michelle begged.

“He is.”

Michelle let out a long, shuddering breath. “Okay. Come home safe, yeah?”

“We will.” She hung up and let her head rest against the seat. “Any clue why James ain’t answerin’ his phone?”

“No. He answered my call promptly.” Harry reached over the squeeze her knee reassuringly. “We’ll sort it out, darling.”

“Yeah. I better get back there, make sure they don’t need nothin’.” She stood up then leaned down to collect a kiss. “That holiday is lookin’ better n’ better all the time.”

They got their passengers dropped off at Heathrow, refueled, then took to the air again. James had been stashed in a small house with a for sale sign in a barely populated cul de sac. They had to land the plane at the small county airport nearby and pick up a rental to go fetch him. They could see signs of violence almost everywhere, cars that had crashed and not yet been removed, broken glass, even a few spots of what was obviously blood. Though the violence had lasted for less than a minute each time Valentine had gotten his hand on the console, it truly didn’t take long for there to be devastating damage. Particularly in America, where gun ownership was a matter of pride. Eggsy had been flicking through news sites on her mobile. The death count wasn’t nearly as bad as she’d feared – in the thousands, yes, but that was world wide – injuries and hospitalizations were far greater. Hospitals and clinics were filled to bursting, and emergency response teams were still finding people that needed treatment. Several heads of state around the world had been discovered minus their heads, and in some cases countries had needed to go rather far down the chain of command to appoint interim leaders.

Possibly one of the worst outcomes was with the militaries. With weapons so close at hand, many of the worlds’ militaries were currently very shy of able bodied soldiers. Most soldiers would recover from their injuries, but it would take time. That at least slightly worked in their favor, as the American military was too short staffed to have actually closed their borders to air traffic. Eggsy let herself be selfishly glad of that as they collected a very subdued James, head swathed in bandages. Eggsy fussed over him when they got him back to the plane, helping him to lie down on the couch and making sure his head was cradled with a soft pillow. She covered him with a blanket then knelt, hand pressed to his cheek. “I’m so glad t’see you, James,” she said quietly.

James squeezed her fingers. “And I am very pleased to see you well, my dear. I trust you gave Valentine reason to regret his existence?”

“Of course.” She closed her eyes and let out a shuddering sigh. “Worst thing of my life, seein’ you shot and thinkin’ you was dead. You’s more of a dad to me than I ever thought possible, y’know. I ain’t never said, an’ I shoulda.”

“I am hardly worthy of such a sentiment, Eggsy,” he protested.

“You don’t get to decide that.” She knelt, leaning against the couch, and let her head come to rest on his shoulder. “Mum’s gonna be so glad t’see you. She’s been going a bit mental, not gettin’ through.”

James grimaced, avoiding her gaze. “I…am not sure I’m ready to see her. Or Daisy.” Eggsy opened her mouth to protest. “I can’t stop seeing that church, Eggsy,” he told her, painfully honest.

She closed her mouth again. “Oh.” She squeezed his hand. “Maybe you don’t wanna hear it, but. I seen everything, James. An’ you know I ain’t ever pulled my punches, yeah? So please try to believe me when I tell you – it wasn’t your fault. There was nothin’ you coulda done to stop what happened there. None of us could. We didn’t know what the plan was, an’ we had no clue where he was hidin’ an’ controlling the cards from til it was over. An’ I can tell you – that wasn’t you in there. Your trainin’, yeah. Your hands, yeah. But not _you_. The church weren’t something you did, it was somethin’ done to you.”

“You’re very kind, Eggsy. But I can’t help but feel as though it was my fault. If I had simply been more diligent, more observant, if I had done my job as I was supposed to instead of being distracted and tired, I might have been able to keep things from getting so far.”

“Then that’s blame we all share, James. We was all distracted. All worryin’ about Arthur an’ the shit he was pullin’, all fussin’ an’ distracted over Dais. An’ then I went an’ got myself in a fuckin’ coma on top of it all.”

But James was clearly not listening. He closed his eyes as the plane began to taxi onto the runway. All Eggsy could do was sit with him. Harry joined them a while later, troubled gaze flickering over James’ closed off, averted face and the almost desperate look in Eggsy’s eyes. James might still be alive, but it was clear that the head injury wasn’t the worst injury he was suffering. He seemed to have left something fundamental behind in that dreadful house of hate.

After a while, James seemed to fall into an actual sleep. Eggsy dared to stand up and placed his limp hand lightly on his stomach. Harry was right there to hold her close. “He don’t wanna see mum or Daisy,” she whispered. “Harry, what are we gonna do?”

“We will take him to Kingsman medical, where his injuries will receive the finest care,” Harry said pragmatically. “And then we will have our psychiatrist look in on him. In the meantime, as I am acting Arthur until a new one is appointed, I intend to invite your mother to Kingsman. She needs to know the truth – all of it. She has more than proven her discretion, and she will need to see James to believe us that he’s alive and will mend.”

“But will he? I ain’t talkin’ about the bullet graze.”

“I know.” Harry tucked a strand of hair behind her ear regretfully. “But it is all I can speak to. We will do what we can to support him, my darling. That is all we _can_ do.”

“It don’t seem enough.”

“No,” Harry sighed. “No, sometimes it really doesn’t.”

Medical was waiting for them when Harry finally landed the plane in the Kingsman hangar. James walked off the plane with Harry supporting him, and from there, he was summarily planted on a gurney and whisked away.

Merlin was waiting for them as well. They had another doctor on staff, and the current situation meant that Merlin was needed far more in ops than he was in medical. His haggard appearance spoke volumes. “Percival was able to apprehend Caradoc,” he said without preamble. “It would seem that Arthur recruited them, but hadn’t gotten around to getting them implants. He knew enough to find somewhere secluded, but both of them still have their heads. Unfortunately, Percival was injured too severely to go after Geraint.” He started walking back towards ops, and they both fell into step with him automatically. “I’ve had to dispatch Roxy to France – they’re on the verge of rioting, and what is left of the government is on the verge of declaring martial law. But they don’t have enough standing military to enforce it. Bors is putting out fires in Russia. They didn’t lose nearly as much of their government, but the chaos of the rest of the world means they’re contemplating some takeovers. Japan is holding steady, thank god for small favors, but China is facing some open insurrection. Bedivere is on hand to make sure their military doesn’t start executing their people. Gaheris and Palamedes are running around Europe. Kay is making a diplomatic trip to the States. We were contacted by a group over there calling themselves The Statesmen. It would seem that we have cousins – with Arthur’s death, I was able to access confidential records I didn’t even know existed before. They were founded much as we were, and for much the same reasons. They operate similar to ourselves as well. They’ve assured me that they have their country, and much of South America in hand.”

“Dear god, what a mess,” Harry said tiredly. “Where do you need us, Merlin?”

Merlin gave him a **look**. “You’re acting Arthur, Harry. Your arse is staying right here to coordinate so I can oversee our agents’ missions. Eggsy, I’m afraid I need you to bring in Geraint.”

Eggsy nodded soberly. “Do we know where he is?”

“Percival tracked him to Austria. He has a cousin by marriage that owns a ski lodge in the mountains.”

“Brilliant. More snow. I got time for a shower an’ a change o’ clothes?”

“You do,” Merlin assured her. “Get something to eat as well. Derek will be your pilot on this one.”

“Aces.”

Harry turned and cupped her face, his own expression serious. “Be very careful, my love. Geraint likely has all our weapons, plus a few extras besides. He was always terribly fond of brass knuckles. Alive to face his peers is preferable, but dead is an acceptable outcome.”

Eggsy fished her broken necklace out of her pocket. “If you get time, would you mind getting this fixed for me? I’ll want to wear it our next date night.”

Harry wrapped his fist around it. “You may depend upon it, darling.”

Eggsy left him there reluctantly. She wanted nothing more than to stay and help with something productive. She wanted to stay with James. She wanted to go fetch her mother and baby sister and bring them to HQ, where perhaps her mother’s unwavering love and acceptance would be able to get through to her stepfather and start to heal the hurt he was so obviously suffering. She wanted to go check on Percival, see how badly he’d been injured. She did **not** want to go and capture a rogue agent that had betrayed everything they were, every principle that Kingsman was founded on. She resented the necessity of it, though she didn’t resent Merlin for dispatching her to do it. It needed to be done, and with Harry having to take the reigns of Kingsman, she was the last one not already occupied.

She was going to make the bastard _suffer_ for pulling her away from more useful tasks, from her family.

She showered and changed quickly, not taking the time to luxuriate in the hot water as part of her wanted to. Another resentment to fuel her. As she headed towards the hangar, she swung by the kitchens and got a to go basket, filled with sandwiches and fruit. It wasn’t the hot meal she’d wanted, preferably eaten with her toes pressed to Harry’s thigh. Yet more resentment.

Derek was waiting in the hangar, face solemn, anger simmering in his eyes. The usually affable young man showed none of his typical good nature, though it wasn’t directed at her. He’d excelled as a handler, and was one of three that Eggsy preferred to work with. He’d once confessed to her and Roxy that he’d been glad to not only leave the military, but take on the handler role as killing was something he’d never been able to reconcile himself to. The gun strapped to his waist showed that he’d reconciled himself to it well enough for this.

Eggsy ate while Derek got them airborne. When she was done, she pulled up the file that Percival had put together when he’d been tracking their traitors. He had definitively tracked Geraint – Julian Winters, to the ski lodge in Austria. She tapped into satellite imagery of the area from the last few days and was able to spot him arriving, but saw no sign that he’d left. He was either extremely confident that they wouldn’t find him, or wasn’t even aware that they were looking.

Derek was able to land the plane within the snowmobile’s reach when they got to Austria. Eggsy pulled on one of the warm coats, but left the rest of the cold weather gear behind. She didn’t want the snowsuit hindering even a little.

She didn’t feel like being coy. She brought the snowmobile to a halt next to its less sophisticated twin outside the lodge. She pasted an anxious, hopeful look on her face as she bounded up the stairs and knocked boldly. Officially, Geraint was supposed to have been undercover with the Mafia, attempting to track their drug source. His last official communication with Merlin had been to say that his cover was blown and he was going to ground to let pursuit die down. That had been over two weeks ago, however. Protocol dictated that he should have checked in long before then, and it was highly suspicious that he hadn’t. She was going to play that off, however. Subterfuge was worth a try.

Julian actually answered the door, though Eggsy could see the gun slightly concealed behind his leg. “Geraint, thank god,” she said, attempting to push inside. “The world has gone to shit. We need all hands on deck. They even pulled me off med leave.”

“So I see,” Julian said, amused. “Merlin must be desperate to send _you_ after me.” He raised the gun to point at her face.

Eggsy dropped the act and snapped both hands up, one grabbing the gun to slide a slender finger behind the trigger, the other to jab at the pressure point on the inside of his bicep. She was able to wrench the gun from him, but he powered through it and sent it flying rather than into her hand for her own use. He brought his knee up towards her stomach, forcing her to spin away to avoid it. He drove her back out into the snow, punching and kicking, he even threw a headbutt in there that made sparkles dance in front of her eyes. She powered through it, as they were trained to do.

Eggsy let him drive her further into the open. A wild, sneering grin crossed his face. “Our _dear_ Gareth,” he taunted. “I cannot imagine what Hart was thinking, taking up with you. James should never have been permitted to make you his proposal. You never belonged in Kingsman.”

“An’ you think a fuckin’ traitor has the right to that kinda say?” Eggsy shot.

“I am loyal to the _true_ Kingsman – to Arthur! As you should have been, having been granted the privilege of being there. You were never loyal – you don’t know what loyalty is. Unless it’s to Hart’s cock.” She caught the motion as his hand dipped into his jacket pocket and wasn’t surprised to see the dull gleam of brass covering his knuckles.

She changed then, stopped retreating and went after him with a flurry of kicks that had him dodging a trifle frantically, well aware of the poisoned blade in her shoe. He rolled to the side and out of her reach and popped up, wary finally, and circling her at a distance. She was tempted to dip inside her jacket for the gun holstered there, but she really wanted to bring him in. He would never face a proper court, but he could damned well be made to face the peers he’d betrayed. They deserved the chance to stare him down and let him know exactly what they thought of him.

“Galahad’s little darling,” he sneered. “Lancelot’s dear girl. You’re sickening. You never should have been allowed to think you’re anything other than a bed warmer. That’s all you’re good for.”

“Keep tellin’ yourself that, bruv. It’ll just make it sweeter when I drag your sorry arse back in chains.” She dove at him. He met her tackle with a bear hug, and the hand with the brass knuckles drove painfully into her kidney. They toppled into the snow together, and he used his greater bulk to roll and pin her into the snow, one arm trapped behind her back. He gripped her free wrist and twisted it as he sat up. She grinned at him, and the sight was enough to make him pause in confusion, brass knuckles raised to pummel her face. She shifted a bit, freeing one leg, but it was the left, which he knew didn’t have the neurotoxin blade in it, so he didn’t pay it any mind.

“What are you smiling for? I’m about to turn that pretty face – your only asset – into jelly.”

“No. You really ain’t.” She flexed her foot, pressing the heel against his calf. The stiletto popped out, impaling him two inches deep right in the muscle. He yelled, arching back involuntarily as the pain speared through him. It gave her leverage to sit up and shove him back and off.

The paralytic worked a treat. Within seconds, he could barely even breathe, every muscle limp and dead. She shook her wrist with a hiss and rubbed it, staring down into his frozen open eyes. “That’s fuckin’ creepy, that is.” She tapped her glasses. “Derek, how long does this shit last?”

“About twelve hours. We’ll need to tape his eyes shut, unless we want to permanently damage his eyes. Need help getting him back here?”

“Dunno. Lemme see if I can get his fat arse on the snowmobile an’ I’ll let you know.”

“Copy that, Gareth. Nice work.”

“Thanks. Been wantin’ to try that since Harry showed me. Should I thank ‘im for the chance?” She talked as she frisked him, stripping him of every weapon on him, including the brass knuckles and the watch.

“I suppose it’s good manners, but I’m not sure he deserves good manners.”

Eggsy stood, then bent to drag him by the ankles towards the snowmobile. With a bit of grunting and swearing, she got him more or less draped evenly over the back seat. She stowed his confiscated weapons in the side compartment, then cracked her back. “Good fuckin’ god, he’s heavy. He musta been eatin’ nothin’ but cheesecake an’ pasta for months. I’m gonna go search the house, make sure none of our gear is there for someone to find.”

“Got it. I’ll have the restraints ready when you get back.”

“Kinky, Derek. Think Harry might have somethin’ to say about that,” she joked.

“Fuck’s sake, Gareth, don’t even joke! I don’t fancy getting my arms broken,” Derek protested, as she’d known he would.

“Aww, my Harry’s a teddy bear.”

“But everyone else’s Harry is a rabid bear.”

Laughing, she cautiously entered the ski lodge. She found a rainmaker and a handful of their grenades, as well as one of the pens stashed strategically about. In his suitcase, she also found a handful of their tracking and listening dots. She gathered what she’d found, then eyed the cheerfully burning fire in the fireplace. She built it up nice and high, then dragged one of the heavy brocade armchairs nice and close. There was a decorative throw on it which she draped over the side nearest the fire. Within seconds, she saw the edge beginning to smolder. Satisfied, she turned and left.

She couldn’t drive as fast back to the plane as she’d have liked, since there was nothing to hold the bastard on the back. She didn’t fancy having to haul his limp carcass back on if he fell off. Fortunately, Derek was more than willing to do the hauling when she finally did pull to a stop by the plane. He wasn’t particularly gentle about it, either. After securing her wrist in a brace and slapping an ice pack on it, he shoved Julian into the snow. He rolled and ended up face up, letting them both see his watering, bloodshot eyes. The cold air had to be hurting like a bitch. More to make sure he’d be able to really see the contempt on the faces of the people he’d betrayed rather than out of any compassion, Eggsy used some medical tape to keep his lids closed while Derek loaded the snowmobile back on.

Derek then dragged him by the ankles, head bouncing, up the plane steps and into the cabin. He was then restrained around wrists and above the elbows, as well around ankles and knees. Derek added a final restraint, securing ankles to bound wrists, completely hogtying him. Eggsy took some ibuprofen and sank back into a chair, letting her head rest on the back. She tapped her glasses to open the line to HQ. “Merlin, you there, bruv?”

“I am. How’s it going?” She tilted her head to let the camera pick up the restrained form. “Excellent. Are you injured?”

“Wrist is pretty sore an’ swollen, might wanna have it checked. Got a brace an’ some ice on it. Other than that, just a few more bruises.”

“Noted. I’ll arrange for an xray upon your return to make certain it’s not serious. Anything else?”

“I’d ignore any reports of a random lodge on fire around these parts, other than that, nothin’.”

Merlin paused for a few seconds, coughed, and said, “Right. Well, job well done. We’ll see you when you return.” He closed the line, but not before she caught the edge of what sounded like laughter.

She managed to doze a bit for the three hour flight back home. She didn’t really feel much better for it, but she was willing to bet she still felt better than Merlin, based on the deep circles under his eyes. “You look like shit,” she said bluntly. “You managed even a nap in the last few days?”

“There hasn’t been time.” He snapped his fingers, an uncommonly rude gesture from him, at a pair of techs standing by and pointed to Julian’s prone figure. They dragged him off, not at all gently, to the rarely used cells underneath ops. Merlin then gripped her arm to escort her to medical. Eggsy made a fast gesture at Derek to follow them. Merlin handled the xray of her wrist personally, and when he ducked out to check the film, Eggsy murmured, “Can you handle ops for a few hours so he can get some sleep?”

“Yes,” Derek said confidently.

“Good.”

Merlin stepped in a couple minutes later. “Just bruising, from the looks of it. No fracture. Keep the brace on and ice it every hour for the swelling. I suppose you’ll want to check in on James.”

“In a bit. You need sleep, Merlin. You’d give small children a fright.”

“There’s too much to do,” he protested.

“Merlin,” she said sternly, “you’re exhausted. We’re all tired, but you’re near done. You’re likely to miss something, the state you’re in. Let Derek run things for a bit – six hours,” she bargained.

“He’s very capable,” Merlin began, obviously not about to actually agree. Eggsy snapped her hand up and darted him. Derek caught him on his way down, and together, they dragged him to an unoccupied room and got him laid out on the bed. Eggsy tucked him in, removing his shoes but adding an extra blanket over his feet. Derek quirked an eyebrow at her. “His feet get cold,” she explained. “Let’s go.”

They went to ops and got a fast update on things. Eggsy informed the handlers in the room that Derek was their go to guy until Merlin had rested. Derek confidently took Merlin’s usual place. She left them to it and went to find Harry.

Harry was in his office, phone pressed to his ear, and a crease in his forehead that spoke of a headache. Eggsy turned right around and left again, making for the kitchen. The cooks were obviously tired, so she waved them off and rummaged around herself. She threw together a fast pasta with a cheese sauce, and grilled a chicken breast to chop over the top. Armed with the tray of food, along with two cold bottles of water, she returned. Harry had finished his call and smiled wanly when she walked back in. “You left so fast, darling. The call wasn’t – oh. You angel.” She set the tray in front of him and handed him a fork. She wasn’t as hungry, so she let him devour the lion’s share of what was on the plate. He washed it down with half the bottle of water, then fished some tablets out of his drawer and continued sipping. “It went well, I take it?” He frowned at her wrist.

“Yeah. It’s just bruised and swollen, no breaks,” she assured him. “Derek is running ops for a few hours. Merlin looked like he was ready to drop.”

“He agreed to that?” Harry asked, clearly shocked.

“Not even a little. I darted him.”

Harry paused. “Not an amnesia dart, I hope.”

“Course not! Just the sedative. I know it wears off in about half an hour, but the way he looked, he’ll be out for hours. He needed it,” she defended. “He was at the point of makin’ mistakes. A good kip an’ he’ll be back at it, an’ it’s worth the tongue lashin’ I’ll get for it. Speakin’ of, you ain’t lookin’ great yourself, love.”

“I know.” He grimaced. “I wish I could. I’ve been running down our contacts in other countries. Everyone is in a bit of a tizzy still, and everyone seems in need of accurate information and advice. The Statesmen group seems well organized, thankfully, and competent. They’ve got that continent well under control, and the southern one as well. Kay is on his way back.”

“What’s the biggest problem goin’ round?”

“Fear,” Harry said bluntly. “The general populace is in a state of fear, and are demanding answers their governments can’t give.”

“So give ‘em the answer,” Eggsy said logically. “We got Valentine’s confession. We can edit out your face an’ any of our info from James’ glasses and the meeting between him an’ Arnold, an’ release the damn thing on YouTube or to the news outlets. Add in the video of him dyin’, an’ that should help calm things down. They’ll know what happened, an’ that Valentine can’t do it again.”

“The downside to that being, however, that others will then know it’s possible to do it and begin to try to replicate the technology.”

“Someone is already gonna figure it out. What’s been done is gonna be repeated. An’ the cards was audible, could hear it on James’ feed. We release the information so folks can know what happened an’ that Valentine is dead, his tech destroyed. An’ then we release the counter signal to the governments that we got from Chester’s implant. They can broadcast it over cell towers or somethin’ if someone else figures out how to do the same thing.”

Harry nodded slowly. “You may be right. More, it will make people more cautious of things like free SIM cards in the future, though perhaps not for as long as one would like.”

“People forget,” she agreed. “People get used to things, get to feelin’ safe again, an’ forget. As long as there’s somethin’ in place to counter it, though, we should manage. An’ **we** know what to keep an eye out for now.”

“Yes indeed. I’ll make the call to ops,” he decided. “Kingsman must be protected, but we’ll release the video – to everyone. I had best warn the Statesmen, however. Valentine was American, this could well paint something of a target on that country’s back.”

“They’re used to it. An’ if it’s pointed out how many politicians from all over the world was in agreement, that should help. Ain’t no country out there with the moral high ground on this one.”

While Harry made both calls, she stood behind him kneading the tension from his neck and shoulders. By the time he was done speaking with someone he called Champ, his head was drooping on his neck. He hung up wearily. “Up you get, love. Time for a kip. I napped on the plane, I can keep an eye on things for a bit yet.” She urged him up and out of his office, up to the third floor where small apartments were kept for use by agents or handlers that needed to stay onsite for an extended period. Eggsy got him tucked in with a kiss. “I’ll wake you if something comes up,” she promised.

“Don’t over extend yourself, darling. Kay can take over as well when he returns – as long as he’s smart enough to sleep on the plane.”

“I’m fine. For now, at least.” With a last kiss, she turned to leave. His breathing had evened out into the deep, steady rhythm of sleep by the time she reached the door.

A pair of their techs who were best at image and video manipulation had already gotten to work on the video from James’ feed when she reached ops. “Derek, route any calls for Harry to me for the time being. He’s catching some sleep as well.”

“In the same fashion?” Derek asked delicately.

“Nah, he was much more sensible about it. How are we lookin’?” She leaned over his shoulder to look at the information scrolling across the multiple screens.

“Stable, for the moment. There’s a great deal of internet chatter, all claiming the madness as plots by the Russians, the Chinese, the Americans, etcetera – whoever is the biggest boogyman of the country of origin,” he explained. “Stocks everywhere have dipped alarmingly, but the longer we go without more violence, the better they get. It’s a slow climb, but if it continues, we shouldn’t see a global depression.”

“That’s one worry less, at least.” Eggsy blew out a breath. “Okay. Can we predict the reaction to our information bomb?”

“It’ll be a mix,” Derek mused. “The states were one of the hardest hit countries, thanks to the wide spread gun ownership, so that might help. But Valentine being American will work against them. Their government is in a shaky position right now as well, with so many having lost their heads. Overall, however, I think that country will come out alright. They’re simply too big, their military too well armed, and their trade too essential for them to be a truly viable target. It’ll be a bit of a hit on the global political stage, but they’ll recover. I would expect to see a certain overall rise of technophobia for a bit, and China, North Korea, and the like might well crack down a bit more on outsiders and outside tech coming in to their people.”

“But things will stabilize?”

“I believe so. It’ll give the conspiracy nuts fresh fodder, but then that type rarely needs much help.”

“Good. How’s Tristan coming along?” Eggsy dragged a chair over to start going over the status of each knight currently out on mission in detail. By the time they were done, the video was ready to be reviewed.

Eggsy went over it frame by frame and couldn’t see any hint of either their advanced tech or of Harry. When they ran it through their own computers to look for evidence of tampering, the results came back clean. Anyone analyzing the footage wouldn’t be able to tell it had been altered. “We got the signal frequency for the counter ready to give out?”

“Yes, ma’am. We don’t know for certain if it works, though. We haven’t tested it.”

“Shit.” She chewed her lip as she met Derek’s gaze. He started shaking his head. She nodded. “We need to test it. We got a soundproof room around here?”

The techs looked at each other uneasily. “Well…yes. We do. But we don’t know if that will stop the wave from the SIM card. If the signal from the chip doesn’t work, anyone nearby could be affected.”

“So we clear the area. We still have the portable control console we confiscated from the bunker, yeah?”

“Of course. But ma’am, we really have to protest. This isn’t safe!”

“No, you’re right. We can’t do it indoors.” Eggsy snapped her fingers. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. We’ll head out to the grounds. We know the safe distance, thanks to Harry’s video feed. Derek, I want you with a tranq gun at that distance. I’ll go with a SIM card and the activated chip. You’ll turn the SIM card on, an’ if I start comin’ at you, knock my arse out. Or, y’know, turn off the SIM card. Whichever is faster.”

“This is a very bad idea,” Derek pointed out.

“We need to confirm the signal from the chip works before we go handin’ it out as a line of defense. An’ I ain’t puttin’ anyone else out there as guinea pig,” she said flatly. “Set it up.”

Trading unhappy looks, Derek and the techs got moving. In short order, Eggsy found herself with a mobile that felt more like an unstable bomb in her pocket and the chip from Chester’s neck taped to her skull behind her ear out on the lawn. Dawn was just creeping over the horizon, reminding her how long it had been since she’d slept properly. It also let her see Derek clearly, along with the rifle loaded with tranquilizers in his hands. The techs were set up behind him with the console.

Eggsy raised her hand for a moment, then dropped it. A few seconds later, the mobile in her pocket began to beep. She pulled it out to look at it. The sound grew in pitch and frequency to a truly obnoxious level. On the screen, a stylized V appeared. The beeping became a steady tone. She felt a bit of annoyance, but nothing more. She looked up at Derek and the others again. There was no urge to go kill any of them. She let the signal go for several long seconds, then raised her hand again. The sound cut out and she walked back to the others, keeping her hands held out a bit at her sides to show her lack of aggression. “It works. The sound was kinda irritating, but beyond that, nothin’. Let’s get the video ready to send out, but send the information on the countersignal to every government we can first. I want them workin’ to get it ready to emit from every mobile and cell tower in the world.”

Derek blew out a relieved breath. “Harry is still gonna maim us for testing it on you. You know that, right?”

“I’ll handle Harry,” she promised.

Merlin was another story. He was awake and had clearly been brought up to speed on the plans. The circles under his eyes were less prominent, at least. “You stupid, reckless little girl,” he seethed. He grabbed her by the elbow and dragged her into his office. “Do you have any idea how fucking dangerous that was? What if the counter hadn’t worked? What if the SIM card had a broader range of efficacy outdoors, with no walls to bounce off of? Did you ever think of that? Derek could have been effect, so could John and Tim! John and Tim don’t have anywhere near your training, but Derek does! He could have killed them, and then what would you have done? Their blood would have been your fault, his guilt would have been your fault! I expect better from Kingsman agents. I should bench your stupid, inconsiderate arse for the foreseeable future – or dismiss you entirely.”

Eggsy regarded him calmly. “We take the risks so others don’t have to,” she said quietly. “And if the signal was blocked to any great degree by walls, then Harry would have been exposed when the windows of the church were broken. He wasn’t, so the signal just didn’t reach that far. Derek is a crack shot, an’ we know that the effect stops as soon as the signal stops. He either would have tranqed me long before I got to them, or the signal would have been turned off long before I got to them. The risk was minimal, and now we know the counter works. So go ahead an’ bench me if it’ll make you feel better. Or fire me.” She shrugged. “That’s up to you, I guess. I did what I had to do.” She turned to leave and he grabbed her arm again. This time she shook him off. “I’ve had a bellyful of folks manhandlin’ me. You need to stop doin’ that, Merlin, or we’s gonna fall out in a big way,” she warned.

“We need to discuss your adventures in darting people whenever it pleases you,” he countered.

“Go ahead an’ be pissed. It was a dirty trick, I fully admit it.” She turned back and narrowed her eyes. “But while you’re busy bein’ pissed, think about this: you was dead on your feet. You think it’s a good idea, a _safe_ idea, for the bloke responsible for watchin’ all our backs to be so exhausted he don’t even see the dart comin’? One mistake from you gets one o’ us killed. We,” she thumped her chest, “take the risks out there. Our handler bein’ too fuckin’ tired to see the landmines in front o’ us ain’t supposed t’be one o’ them!”

She slammed through the office door. “Get that information sent out!” she barked. “When everone’s got it, release the video – worldwide.” She stalked towards the door.

“Guinevere Unwin, don’t you bloody walk out!” Merlin yelled.

Eggsy turned. “It’s either walk out or smash your fuckin’ teeth in, bruv. An’ I don’t need Roxy pissed at me for maimin’ you. Fuck right the fuck off.” She slammed through the door out of ops and headed for the stairs.

Harry stirred when she entered the apartment. She felt a brief pang of regret that she’d woken him, but knew it was likely inevitable. If she had gone elsewhere to cool down, Merlin would no doubt have sought him out sooner rather than later. He rubbed his eyes and looked at her. As soon as he saw her face, he sat bolt upright. “What’s happened?”

“Merlin,” she seethed. In quick, precise sentences, she brought Harry up to speed. His face clouded over with anger, but she was surprised when it was directed at her.

“He wasn’t wrong. Eggsy, how the hell could you think of testing that on yourself?” he demanded. He shook the blankets off and stood up. “That was unbelievably reckless. There should have been more safeguards in place. Why the hell would you risk yourself and your colleagues like that?!”

Eggsy stared at him. “The risk was minimal. I been over that. It had to be tested, an’ it had to be tested sooner rather than later. The world is hangin’ by a thread, Harry. You fuckin’ know that. It’s our job to make sure nothin’ cuts that thread!”

“That doesn’t mean you risk yourself needlessly!”

“I didn’t! I made a calculated risk, Harry. A needed one! My life ain’t more or less valuable than anyone else’s!”

“It is to me!”

“Oh, no you don’t,” she snapped. “You don’t get to do that, Harry. You ain’t about to start wrappin’ me in cotton an’ keepin’ me from doin’ my fuckin’ job, just ‘cause you’s in charge for a bit. I’m a full agent, same as you, an’ if I decide I need to take a calculated risk, _with safeguards in place_ , then that’s what I’m gonna do.” She glared resentfully at him. “When you get your head out of your arse, let me know.” She turned and stalked right back out.

Her anger fueled her for a bit, but her exhaustion was fast catching up with her. She headed, with increasingly heavy steps, down to medical. She found Percival first. His leg was in a cast up to his knee and he had a bandage around his head. He gave her a faint smile when she poked her head around the door. “Rumor has it you brought Geraint in.”

“Yeah, few hours ago now. Should ask the techs to figure out a way to get you blokes a second blade with the paralytic on it. Works a treat. You feelin’ okay?”

“Oh, bit of a headache and a broken leg, nothing that won’t heal. Caradoc managed to open my scalp pretty good with the butt of his gun.” His keen gaze swept over her. “What’s got you so fighting mad?”

“Harry an’ Merlin.” She waved a hand, dismissing it. “You set okay? Need anythin’?”

“I’m quite alright. I expect I’ll be hobbling about the place soon enough. I’ve stopped seeing double.”

“Good. We need a well rested brain around the place. I’m gonna go look in on James. Gimme a holler if you need anythin’.”

“Get some rest yourself, Eggsy. If you can.”

“I’ll do m’best.” Eggsy gave him a little finger wave and moved on. James was a few doors down, and deeply asleep. Moving as quietly as she could, she moved the recliner up close to his bed and settled in, leaning the back as far back as it would go. With the footrest extended, it was comfortable enough, and she was close enough to reach out and rest her hand over his as he slept. She closed her eyes and tried to calm herself enough to sleep, but the seething anger made it difficult. Merlin may well have had a right to be angry with her for summarily darting him with the sedative, but that didn’t give him the right to dress her down like a rank beginner in front of everyone. It didn’t give him the right to threaten to fire her like she was little more than an average employee. In her years as an active agent, she’d never failed a mission. The day would come, there wasn’t one of them that didn’t have at least one failure under them, but so far she had performed almost flawlessly.

And Harry. He didn’t have the right to put her life over everyone else’s. Their job had risks. She did what she could to minimize those risks, but there was no amount of prep that would eliminate them entirely. This had been the same thing. He couldn’t use his feelings for her to hobble her, to try to box her into some ‘safe’ little corner while everyone else took those risks. She was smart, she was capable, and she had made the choice to do this job.

If this was what happened when she relaxed and let him take care of her, indulge her, then she was damned well not making that mistake again.


	10. Chapter 10

Eventually, she managed to drift into a light sleep. She wasn’t sure how long she’d managed to doze before a sound woke her. James was still under her hand, so the sound wasn’t from him. Keeping her breathing relaxed and even, she cracked her eyes a sliver to see a pair of scrubs clad legs pad quietly past her. Her hair had come loose and fallen partly over her face, so she risked opening her eyes a bit wider to take in details.

Nancy, the cold hearted nurse that Eggsy had long refused to allow near her, was standing over James in the bed with a syringe in her hand. Eggsy popped up, suddenly wide awake. “What the hell are you doin’?” she demanded, not bothering to keep her voice down.

“He needs antibiotics,” Nancy said smoothly, reaching for James’ arm.

Eggsy snapped her hand out to grab her wrist. “No, he fuckin’ don’t. You get the doctor in here to tell me that himself.”

“I don’t answer to you, agent.”

James stirred. “Eggsy? What’s going on?”

“Nice to see you awake, James. Doc say anything about you gettin’ antibiotics?” Eggsy asked, neither taking her eyes nor hand off of the nurse.

From the corner of her gaze, she saw James shifting and sitting up. “No, as a matter of fact, he did not.”

“Simply because you don’t recall does not mean that it didn’t happen. You have a severe head injury, Mr. Atherton,” Nancy said, rather condescendingly.

“Oi! Don’t you take that tone with him. Chester’s favorite little nurse,” she sneered. Nancy didn’t flinch. “Why don’t you stick that junk in your own arm, prove it’s just harmless antibiotics?”

“Taking antibiotics when you don’t need them is actually incredibly harmful, though I would not expect _you_ to understand that. Now release my wrist and let me tend to my patient, or I will need to file a formal complaint against you. Considering your currently disgraced status, is that something you really want to risk?”

“James, you just go ahead an’ hit the call button.”

“I already have.”

Eggsy started walking, trying to drag her by the arm away towards the end of the bed. Unexpectedly, Nancy took the syringe in her other hand and stabbed it towards Eggsy’s arm. Eggsy felt the needle graze her skin before she could grab that wrist as well. Nancy twisted, face contorted into a rictus of fury. James’ hand snapped out to take the syringe, having to pry her fingers open to get her to release it. He jabbed it into Nancy’s stomach and held it there, finger on the plunger. Nancy froze.

Behind them, the door opened. “What in god’s name is going on here?” Merlin demanded.

“Shall I depress this, Nancy?” James asked smoothly. “After all, one shot of antibiotics when you don’t need them won’t actually hurt you.”

“I’m allergic!” she stammered.

“No, you’re not, actually. I’m familiar with your medical records.” Merlin rounded the bed and reached down to take the syringe. He set it off to the side. “I’ll have that analyzed later to see what it actually is. Eggsy, let her go.”

“Why?” Eggsy asked softly, eyes never leaving the woman’s. “We all know she was tryin’ to kill James. Poison, like Chester tried on me. I had no problem killin’ him, an’ I won’t lose a wink o’ sleep over killin’ her.”

Nancy’s eyes narrowed. “I should have stuck _you_ when I came,” she spat. “Laying there so sweetly, holding your dear mentor’s hand. You _should_ be killing for what you did to Chester. They would have saved the world, rid it of pathetic bits of trash like you.”

“This pathetic bit of trash killed ol’ Chester. It weren’t even hard – drank his poison right down. I watched him die, writhing and spitting. Might be I’ll paint a portrait of it – hang that on the walls along with all those other Kingsman, let everyone know the price of betrayal.”

Nancy screamed in rage and tried to lunge, but with Eggsy holding her wrists in an iron grip, she had no leverage. Merlin brought his hands up and fired a dart into the side of her neck. In seconds, she sagged across the bed, unconscious. Eggsy let her go to slither ungracefully to the floor.

“I thought you were investigating her, Merlin,” James observed, one hand pressed to his likely aching skull. “Or at least keeping a close watch on her.”

Merlin was staring down at her. “With everything else, she rather fell to the wayside.”

“I’m sure everyone is exhausted,” James excused. “But perhaps it would be wise to have someone reviewing security footage to see where’s she been. If she got into the food or drink being served, that could be a problem.”

Merlin looked at him, then his gaze slid to Eggsy’s. She didn’t say anything, though there was a petty part of her that really wanted to. “That’s an excellent idea, James. I’ll alert everyone to what has happened and caution them to be careful of what they eat or drink until we can verify that it’s safe.” He bent to sling the unconscious woman roughly over his shoulder. “I’ll be back for the syringe once I have her secured.”

“You do that, bruv,” Eggsy said softly. Lips a thin, hard line, Merlin walked out.

“Out with it, Eggsy. What’s been happening?”

Eggsy sat, though her gaze shifted and locked onto the syringe filled with death sitting on James’ side table. Voice nearly a monotone, she brought James up to speed on everything that had happened while he’d been down in medical, largely asleep thanks to the head injury. She spared no details, including word for word the arguments she’d had with both Merlin and Harry.

“Tell me, why did it have to be you that the signal was tested on?” James asked when she was done.

“Who else?” She finally tore her gaze away from the syringe to look at James solemnly. “It had to be tested. We had precautions in place. I seen what it did to you, James. I wasn’t about to put someone else through that. I get paid to take the damage – and it was my idea.”

James sighed and leaned back against the bed. She leaned forward to tuck his blankets higher, smoothing out wrinkles. “That’s rather what I thought you’d say. Don’t get me wrong, dear girl. I understand their anger, particularly Harry’s. But I also think you did the right, the honorable, thing. They’ll come around. When they’ve rested and they remember what our jobs are and we are the ones that do it.”

Eggsy let out a relieved breath. She’d been afraid that James would blow up at her too. She leaned forward again to kiss his cheek. “Thanks, James. How are you feeling? Should I get the doctor?”

He grimaced and waved his hand. “No, it’s just the headache. It will pass in time.”

“Okay. Now that I’m up, I’m going to go pick up mum an’ Daisy. Harry gave permission for them to come and be let in on things.” James opened his mouth, clearly ready to protest. She placed her hand over his mouth. “You don’t gotta see her if you don’t wanna. We won’t make you if you ain’t ready. But she deserves to know, Harry said she gets to know, so I’m going to bring her here. An’ when you’re ready to see ‘em, they’ll be here.”

She pulled her hand away to let him speak. “There’s no way I can dissuade you from this?”

“No.” She gentled her voice. “I ain’t gonna show her the video of the church or nothin’ like that.”

“Thank you for that. I suppose it is rather safer here than in London. With everyone so on edge, it wouldn’t take much for rioting to start,” he sighed.

“Hopefully, releasing the information on what actually caused all hell to break loose will have folks calmin’ down a tad.”

“Hopefully,” James agreed.

Eggsy bent to give him a careful hug. “It’ll come out alright, James. You’ll see.”

As she stepped out of his room, she passed Merlin returning for the syringe. “Where’s Harry?” she asked, keeping her tone neutral.

“Ops,” Merlin answered shortly.

Biting back the sarcasm that wanted out, she strode down the hallway. Harry was at Merlin’s station, bent over reviewing the information scrolling across the screens. “Any updates?” Eggsy asked, again striving for a neutral tone.

Harry whirled around. “Eggsy! Oh, well. The release of the video of Valentine’s little speech seems to have toned down the worst of the people ready to storm the streets with pitchforks and torches. That was well done,” he said, also in a very neutral voice. “The American government – what’s left of it – had categorically condemned Valentine and his insane plan, with those remaining assuring both the American public and the rest of the world that they would be working hard to make sure such a thing cannot occur again. We’ve sent the counter signal to every major government in the world, and it’s going around to all of the smaller ones as we speak.”

“Got anyone lookin’ into where Nancy’s been, what she was up to while she was runnin’ about unmonitored?”

Harry winced. “Yes. We could only spare a couple people, so it will be slow going.”

“Right.” She nodded and glanced around. “I’m gonna go fetch mum an’ Daisy, bring ‘em back here. The shrinks been in to see James yet? He din’t say.”

“Not yet, but if he’s awake, I’ll be sure to send them down. I – well.”

“I’ll get mum settled an’ check back in, see where I can help.”

“Thank you…darling.”

Eggsy narrowed her eyes, but otherwise didn’t react to his tentative, almost hopeful tone. “Got m’ mobile if somethin’ comes up while I’m out.” She turned and left, feeling a bit off balance without their usual kiss goodbye, but still angry enough to not want to be touched – at least by Harry.

Michelle was a wreck when she arrived. It was clear she hadn’t slept much, and Daisy was fussy as well, picking up on her mother’s stress. Considering the bruising Eggsy knew marred her face, and the split, swollen lip from her fight with Gazelle, her appearance was as reassuring as it might have been. “What the fuck is goin’ on?!” Michelle demanded, tilting Eggsy’s face side to side to get a good look.

“I’ll tell you everythin’, mum. You wanna do it here, or at HQ?”

Michelle went still. “You takin’ the piss?”

“Not a drop. There’s been some changes, an’ we’re under new, if temporary, leadership. He’s decided your discretion can be trusted, so you get to know the whole truth.”

“Tell me everything,” Michelle ordered, tugging her to sit down on the couch.

Eggsy went through it all. She started from her father’s recruitment and the manner of his death, all the way up through the events of the last few months. Her mother was furious to learn she’d been in an actual fucking coma and not just ‘ill’, but otherwise took most the news very well. Right up until Eggsy reached the events of that day.

“I’ll _kill_ her,” she hissed jumping up and beginning to pace. “How _dare_ that bitch try to kill him? While he’s layin’ in bed with a gun shot to the head! I’ll kill her with my bare fuckin’ hands, swear down! Where is she?”

“Mum! They ain’t gonna let you get at her,” Eggsy pointed out. “Besides, I’m pretty sure that once they all have to face the entire organization, they’s gonna be sentenced to death. Not like we can just put ‘em in a prison, can we? They’d be singin’ their damn heads off ‘bout us.”

“I want it to be slow an’ painful.”

“Well, not sure about that one. We’re supposed t’ be the good guys. Not that I don’t agree. Why don’t you go pack a coupla bags for you an’ Daisy, yeah? I’ll put you’s up on one of the apartments. That way you’ll be on hand when James is ready to see you’s.”

Just like that, her face crumpled. “He really don’t wanna see us?”

Eggsy jumped up to hug her. “He’s really messed up over what that signal made him do. Can’t get it out o’ his head, he said. It ain’t – it ain’t _you_. You know that, right?”

“I guess. I just – I need t’ see him.”

“I know you do. I’m hopin’ having you so close will help convince him. He loves you both like mad, you know he does.”

“I know. I do know that.” She lifted her chin. “We’re strong enough to wait for him to be ready.”

“Good. Go pack.”

“We should stop by the store, get some groceries,” Michelle suggested as she began to gather up some of Daisy’s toys into her diaper bag. “Could make a couple big pots o’ stew, like, til your lot can make sure that bitch din’t poison the food supply.”

“The market’s opened back up?”

“Most of ‘em, yeah.”

“We can do that. Mind, we got about two hundred people on site.”

Michelle paused. “Okay, then we’s making a lot o’ stew. An’ we’ll need a lot o’ bread an’ butter to go with.”

With near military efficiency, Michelle packed her bags, got them in the minivan they’d decided to buy when Daisy came along (though James had near wept over it) and drove to the nearest market. The shelves weren’t exactly bursting. The fighting that had broken out had damaged a lot of shelves and food, and deliveries were slow to resume. They managed to load up a couple of trolleys, though, largely with frozen stuff that had been in the back and escaped damage.

They made an odd sight when they got to the shop, though since most of the stores on the street were still closed, there really wasn’t anyone to see them. Andrew hurried to help them bring in all the bags, then locked up behind them to help them transport it all to HQ. While Michelle and Daisy received some odd looks, the fresh food was very welcome. They still hadn’t managed to rule out Nancy visiting the kitchens, since there weren’t cameras in there and the cooks couldn’t say for sure one way or another whether she’d been in. The kitchen staff descended on the safe groceries. A bit bemused, Eggsy watched as her mother began directing them, Daisy strapped to her chest. After a few minutes, Michelle just dug straight in, taking over a pair of giant stock pots for what looked to be homemade chicken soup.

Her mother threw her a frosty look. “You gonna just stand an’ watch, babes, or you gonna do somethin’ useful?”

Blushing a bit, Eggsy washed her hands and started chopping the thawing vegetables. A pair of cooks had seized the flour and yeast they’d brought and begun to work on making some fresh loaves, though they’d brought a few loaves from the store. Another pair were working to thaw the frozen chicken, while yet another had seized the two large turkeys they had scored and was working to fast thaw them in the microwave.

They hadn’t been able to buy enough to feed everyone a bit of everything, and it wouldn’t last more than a single meal. But it would get some decent food into people while the kitchen stores were tested and cleared or destroyed. And it certainly made Michelle feel useful while she processed everything she’d learned, where she was, and the fact that her husband was too traumatized to see her.

Eggsy stayed to help until the stock pots were filled and warming. A dozen loaves of bread dough were rising on the counter, and one of the turkeys was stuffed and in the oven. Eggsy washed her hands again and kissed her mother’s cheek. “I need t’ go check in. Text me when you’re done in here an’ I’ll come show you up to the apartment.”

“Go, babes. Get the world workin’ proper again.”

“We’re doin’ our best!”

Harry was, of course, still in ops, along with Merlin. The tension in the room seemed to have eased off, which Eggsy hoped meant tension in the world had eased off as well. “How’s everything?”

“Calming down, a bit,” Harry confirmed. “We’ve recalled Roxy. Kay arrived while you were out. Our other agents have returned to safe houses for some rest, and we’re hoping to be able to recall them if everything holds steady. Is your mother settled in?”

Eggsy managed a small smile. “She took over the kitchens. We brought groceries, hopefully enough to tide us over til the food can be cleared. It’ll be a bit of a mishmash, but it’ll get somethin’ hot into everyone. Best decide if you’s gonna want turkey or chicken soup. Should get some fresh baked bread, too.”

“Ladies who organize,” Harry joked. Eggsy shrugged. “If you see her before I do, please thank her for all of us. We could all use a decent meal.”

“Course. Where do you need me?”

Harry tilted his head thoughtfully. “We were getting ready to try interrogating Nancy. She certainly seemed to react to you, from what I saw on the video. Why don’t you come with, see if you can get her reacting some more?”

“Oh, I would _love_ to chat a bit more with that bitch.” Eggsy smile at that was far more bloodthirsty.

“Derek,” Merlin called. “You have the room. Let us know if anything comes up.”

The three of them walked out and headed for the stairs that would take them to the rarely used cells on the level below them. Eggsy’s spine was ramrod straight and her shoulders squared. If either of them had anything at all to say on the arguments from earlier, she was not in the mood to oblige them. Being observant and intelligent men, neither attempted to broach the subject.

The cells were all located down a single hallway and required a scan of their palms to both enter and leave. Two security stood at the door at the top of the stairs and two were at the bottom. Recessed cameras watched every inch of the hallway and each cell, and were monitored 24/7 when someone was in them. Even a slight blip on the screens would be investigated in case of tampering.

The former Caradoc, she was pleased to see, was swathed in even more bandages and plaster than Percival. Geraint, of course, had a thick bandage around the leg she’d impaled, and had bandages wrapped around his eyes due to the extended exposure to the cold air before they had taped them shut. Nancy was awake again and glaring hate at them from inside her cell. They’d all been stripped and given plain cotton trouser and a shirt. No buttons or ties anywhere to be seen. Eggsy leaned against the bullet proof glass front of her cell and favored her with a bright smile. “Lookin’ good, there, Nancy. Had a nice nap?”

“Tolerable. You look like shit – maybe you should try it.”

“How long were you working with Chester to destroy Kingsman?” Harry asked.

“I simply don’t know what you mean. Chester was never trying to destroy Kingsman. He was saving it.”

“Until I killed him,” Eggsy mused. “Which, I gotta say, was pretty fun. Still gonna paint that portrait of him. Maybe make prints an’ use ‘em in the firing range.”

Anger flashed over her face. “You aren’t fit to speak about him!”

“An’ yet, here I am, speakin’ about him. Like this: he made some of the worst decisions as Arthur of all time. That shit during the last recruitment? Not a one o’ his supposed elite made it past the parachute test. Incompetent cowards, the lot of ‘em. Not that Chester was much better. Playin’ at sympathy – badly, I might add, dunno anyone that’d fall for that shite act – to try t’ poison me. Too dumb to actually look into me, or he’d have known I don’t drink. Always been suspicious o’ drinks given to me. That shit’s just basic, yeah? Everyone knows it since my trials.” She shrugged. “Too fuckin’ stupid to pay attention. An’ you think he thought much better o’ you? You’s workin’ class too, accordin’ t’ the likes o’ him. Just a bit more useful than most, so he was willin’ t’ keep you around as his personal little pet. That your kink or sommat?”

Nancy flew at the glass, slapping her hand at Eggsy face. “You don’t know anything! Chester was a great man!”

“Ooh, had a bit of a thing for ‘im didja? No shame here, Nancy. Older man have their appeal.” Eggsy glanced slyly at Harry. “Didja have to slip him that Cialis stuff? Slap a heart monitor on ‘im while you sucked him off?”

“You filthy little whore, don’t you talk about my father like that!”

“Your father?” Merlin said sharply. “Chester King was your father?” Nancy turned her back, covering her face with her hands. “Chester King was married for over fifty years. His wife gave him two children. You were not one of them.” He tilted his head. “Although I do recall during your background check that your mother worked in his household. One of the cleaning staff, if my memory serves.”

Eggsy burst out laughing. “Oh, that is too fuckin’ rich! Old white titled bloke, fuckin’ the chamber maid. Surprised he din’t make your mum have an abortion, honestly.”

“He loved my mother,” Nancy spat. “But he could hardly divorce his wife. That isn’t done!”

“It’s done all the time, even among the elite. Your mum just weren’t worth it to him. Neither was you.”

“He loved me.”

“You were useful to him. Nothin’ more. He din’t have much use for girls, he made that pretty clear with the way he ignored Roxy. Jesus, lady, you are seriously fucked up.”

“You don’t know anything. You’re just a whore born of a whore, who fucked her way into Kingsman!”

“Heard that line before. You ain’t even original. An’ you’d best be careful on who you’re callin’ a whore’s daughter. Best look in the mirror when you say that. What kinda woman sleeps with a married man? A rich married man? Should I tell you? The kind lookin’ for a payout. Bet he paid your mum real good to keep her mouth shut about you,” Eggsy taunted. “Ain’t even like he trusted you, really. Got no clue how long he’d been workin’ with Valentine. He only told you just enough so’s you’d keep him informed what the gossip round the place was. An’ only when he couldn’t find it out himself with his shitty ‘spy’ skills. Washed up, tired old man with more age spots than brain cells.”

“He loved me, he trusted me! He shared everything with me! He met Valentine over a year ago and –“ Nancy shut her mouth with a snap.

“Useful. Now we know how far back to look into his actions,” Harry observed. His gaze flickered to the other cell. “Along with our disgraced brethren.”

“I hate you,” Nancy hissed. “I should have killed you while you were in that coma. I should have jammed that syringe in your neck!”

“I was awake the second you opened that door. An’ we been on to Chester an’ the others long enough that Harry knew not to leave me unguarded. You was never gonna have a real chance at killin’ me. I just don’t get why James was your target.”

“No one would have thought twice about someone with a head injury dying. And all of you get yourselves hurt. I would have picked you off one by one, until Kingsman could be made great again with Chester’s guidelines,” she said, but there was something off in her tone.

“Guidelines I’ve already removed,” Harry said, amused. “I do believe it has more to do with your cowardice. Harm the injured who was unlikely to fight back in time.”

Eggsy cocked her head. “Or maybe it’s a bit more personal than that,” she guessed. Nancy twitched then doubled down on her glaring. “Bit jealous, maybe? James is upper class, same as Chester. But he, unlike Chester, married the lower class woman he fell in love with. Married her, and absolutely dotes on the daughter they had. He’s everythin’ you wanted Chester to be, everythin’ Chester said he couldn’t be cause of image an’ class an’ ‘how things is done’. Maybe you wanted t’kill all of us, but you picked him first cause he was proof of what a shitbag Chester was, an’ always had been. I think we’re done here. She ain’t got nothin’ worth our time. Chester was never gonna trust her enough, unwanted bastard child that she is. Never really important to daddy, never that important in Kingsman, an’ she sure ain’t important now.”

“Oh, you think so? Just wait until you put me in prison! I’ll show you important,” Nancy taunted. “You’ll see just how many people will want to hear what I have to say. Kingsman is ruined anyway, you really think I’ll keep protecting it?”

For the first time, one of the other’s locked down there made a sound. Geraint snorted and hobbled to his feet, covered eyes gazing vaguely in their direction. “Chester truly must have been suffering a bit of senility to entrust you with anything, my dear. We’re all dead. We will never see outside these walls again. We’ll be exhibits while the rest of Kingsman parades through to tell us what disgraces we are. They will attempt to glean any further information we have from us, and when they’ve decided we have nothing further of use to tell them, we will be executed.”

“They can’t do that! I’m a citizen of the United Kingdom, I have rights!”

“Oh for the love of god, woman, shut up!” Caradoc called out. “You signed away your rights when you joined Kingsman. Disloyalty means death. We all know it. Jesus, Harry, just kill me now and spare me listening to her pathetic weeping. It’s all she’s done since you threw her down here.”

“That’s rather against protocol, I’m afraid. You’ll have to suffer it a while longer.” Harry moved closer to the glass, gently edging Eggsy out of the way. “Now then. Julian and Rhys are quite correct. Yours is a sentence of death. The manner of that death, however, is negotiable. Gentle and painless or…not. If you have any further information on Chester King’s plots that might be of interest to us, now would be the time to tell us. It would earn the former method. If you continue to prove difficult, then I’m afraid it will be the latter. Anything?” Nancy just stared at him, mouth working soundlessly. “Why don’t we let you think on it a bit. Perhaps you can come up with some sins of your own to confess, if you truly still feel such loyalty to a man who never claimed you and never would have.”

Nancy stared at him, mouth working. Eventually she just shut down, sliding to the floor and leaning against the glass listlessly. Eggsy gave a little snort and turned her back. “We’ve wasted enough time here. Let’s go, I’d like to see if anything is ready in the kitchen.”

“Of course, darling. I’m rather famished myself. You mentioned turkey, I believe, did you not?”

“Yeah, but it ain’t my stuffing recipe,” she warned as they made their way towards the door. “Might be better off with the chicken soup. Mum made it, an’ with a bit of fresh, warm bread? Fuckin’ heaven, love.”

“James has mentioned that,” Merlin observed. “I’m quite looking forward to trying it.” They palmed their way out of the room and walked upstairs. “That went well,” Merlin said. “We got more than I thought we would. She’d been doing nothing but swearing since she woke up.”

Eggsy grunted. “I’ll start back tracing Chester, see who else he’d been in contact with a lot. Might be more support staff b’sides his daughter that could be a problem.”

“I’ve been looking into that,” Merlin started.

“Like you were lookin’ into Nancy?” she snapped. “James was dead asleep. If I hadn’t been there, she’d have stuck him with that junk.” She jerked away when Harry reached for her. “I got work t’ do.” Eggsy left them standing there and made her way to her office. She half expected her access to be restricted when she logged into her computer, and was pleasantly surprised to find she still had full access. She got dug in, going back a bit over a year to trace every movement Chester had made. It wasn’t awfully hard. Chester had tended to remain in his lavish office above the shop for the most part. When he wasn’t there, he was in his townhouse in London. They had access to his home security footage, which let her verify when he was actually home and hadn’t just left his glasses there. But for most of them, keeping their glasses with them at all times was very much a habit. Chester was no different.

She was able to pinpoint what she thought was the first meeting between Chester and Valentine. Chester bestirred himself, on rare occasions, to attend high society functions, provided enough people of ‘quality’ would be there. One such function, ostensibly a charity gala, happened to also boast Valentine on its guest list. Eggsy managed to work her way into the grand hotel’s security data banks, upgraded to cloud storage just a couple years prior. The cameras were rather high up on the ballroom, and had a couple blind spots, but their facial recognition software picked out both men. Their paths crossed that night for a grand total of five minutes. Audio was right out, so she didn’t know what Valentine had said to get Chester’s attention hooked so thoroughly.

Interestingly, three days after the gala, Chester’s gps took him back to that hotel, this time into one of the suites. He spent over an hour there. A week after that, he summoned Caradoc to his office. There was no recording of that meeting. All surveillance had been disabled. Not even a week later, Nancy had been scheduled for one his regular checkups. The man had given every evidence of being something of a hypochondriac, though not severe enough to truly interfere. It had been managed with regular visits from his ‘nurse’. That seemed to have been more of a façade than anyone realized. Those visits usually lasted about half an hour, and were mostly all recorded on surveillance. A quick review showed they generally consisted of a fast temperature and blood pressure check, followed by tea and bland conversation. This checkup, however, lasted an hour, and again, the surveillance had been stopped. Geraint followed three weeks later when his over seas mission finally ended and allowed him to return to HQ for a spell.

A knock on her door interrupted her before she could start looking for that same pattern. “C’mon in,” she called. Her mum opened the door and poked her head around. “Mum! Shit, did you try an’ text me? Think my mobile is on vibrate, an’ I got a bit distracted with this.”

“No worries, babes. Brought you up a bit of dinner.” Michelle swung the door open and entered with a covered tray. Eggsy jumped up to take it from her, setting it down on her coffee table. She lifted the lid to find a steaming bowl of soup and a warm, buttered piece of bread. She moaned a bit, suddenly ravenous, and tucked in. Michelle sat next to her on the couch, far less broken in than Harry’s. She wore a small, satisfied smile as Eggsy devoured the food, and waited with impeccable timing until Eggsy drained the last of the broth from her bowl before pouncing. “I think you mighta left a bit of somethin’ out of this whole mess that’s goin’ on when we was talkin’ earlier.” Eggsy stared at her, confused. “Somethin’ ‘bout a bit of a row with Harry an’ Hamish?”

“Oh. That. Yeah, might have done. Weren’t really important with what I was tellin’ you.”

“I think it is. Elspeth, one o’ the cooks, mentioned the tension ‘bout the place with you an’ Harry an’ Hamish at odds. Wanna tell your mum all about it?”

Eggsy sighed and flopped back, suddenly incredibly tired. “Why not?” she groused. “Apparently we’re all so gossipy you’ll hear about it all anyway.” Michelle kept her face smooth and bland as Eggsy told her all about it, not bothering to spare details about the test that had sparked things. She also was frank about darting Merlin, which is what she personally thought he’d been truly angry over.

“Can see why they’d both be narked off at you,” Michelle said when she finished. “Can’t say I’m thrilled with you testin’ such a thing on yourself, but I’m your mum. If it was up to me, you’d have a nice safe office job somewhere, yeah? But that ain’t who you are, an’ I get that. I think you should talk to ‘em, babes. You all over reacted.” Eggsy opened her mouth to protest. “Don’t even try that on with me, missy,” she warned. “I’m your mum. I know you too well. Everyone around here is exhausted an’ strung out. Yeah, Hamish shoulda been takin’ a bit better care to at least get in a power nap here or there, but dartin’ him into unconsciousness weren’t right. Druggin’ someone against their will ain’t right.” Michelle gave her a pointed look and Eggsy flushed. “You don’t like it. You fight tooth an’ nail to avoid shots an’ meds the moment you’re awake from some injury or illness an’ you damned well know it. An’ how did you think Harry would react to the news you tested that thing on yourself? He’s just as exhausted an’ stressed as everybody else, an’ then you just spring that on him? Yeah, he overreacted, cause you scared the piss outta him, makin’ him think about if things had gone wrong an’ the test had sparked a killin’ spree round here with you at the center!”

“That’s why we took the precautions we did! So that couldn’t happen!”

“I get that, babes. But he din’t hear nothin’ bout the precautions when you told him, all he heard was you tested that on yourself an’ then that’s all he could think of. An’ another thing – you need some good sleep. You’d have thought of all this if you was rested proper, an’ the couple cat naps you’ve had ain’t enough. I seen Thomas up an’ about. He can keep workin’ on whatever you got going on here. He don’t need that leg to work on a computer. Plus, you’re startin’ to stink, lovey. How long you been in those clothes?”

Eggsy flushed. “I…can’t actually remember. Had a shower right before I went out to find one of the traitors, but. Shit.”

“Exactly. Up you get, Eggsy.” Michelle dragged her to her feet and towed her out of her office and up to the third floor. Someone had clearly shown her where her bags had been placed, as she’d unpacked some, and there were baby toys strewn about. “Elspeth is lookin’ after Daisy for me for a bit. You go have a shower,” she ordered, pushing Eggsy towards the bathroom. “You can borrow a pair o’ my pajamas for sleep. I’ll see if someone will run me out to yours to fetch you an’ Harry a few changes of clothes. You sleep yourself out, you hear me? Or I’ll borrow one o’ them fancy watches and knock you out.”

“Yes, mum,” Eggsy agreed meekly. She slunk her way into the bathroom and stripped. Now that she was aware of it, she could smell the tang of adrenaline sweat clinging to her, and her hair felt rather more greasy than she liked. It was a bit odd to use her mother’s toiletries instead of her own or Harry’s, but certainly not weird enough to put her off.

When she was clean and dressed in a pair of her mother’s cotton pajamas she found her mum waiting with a brush. “You smell loads better,” Michelle observed as she brushed the tangles out of Eggsy’s wet hair.

“You don’t need t’ keep rubbin’ it in,” Eggsy groused.

“Hmm.” Michelle fashioned her hair into a tight braid down her back to keep it neat while she slept, then tried to push her down on the bed.

“I can’t just yet, mum. I need to get Percy briefed on what I was workin’ on. I’ll be back soon as I get ‘im caught up.”

“If you ain’t back in ten minutes, I’ll come find you,” Michelle promised.

Sufficiently motivated, Eggsy threw a robe on and hurried out the door. Percival and Kay were both in ops. “Got some desk work for ya, Perce,” she said.

Percival looked her over, lips twitching. “Oh?” With magnificent restraint, he sucked his cheeks in and bit down the grin.

Eggsy lifted her chin with as much dignity as she could muster, and quickly filled him in on the pattern she’d found. “I’m done in, gonna catch some real sleep for a bit. You got the time to take over lookin’ into it til I wake up?”

A little more seriously, Percival nodded. “Of course, Eggsy. Kay has this. Galahad and Merlin are down in the labs looking into both the food and the chemical that was in the syringe. Dr. Gerhart has been in with Lancelot for quite some time.”

Eggsy blew out a relieved breath. “I’ll go see ‘im when I get up, then. See how he’s feelin’.”

“Get some sleep.”

Michelle was just leaving the apartment with a rather militant look to her when Eggsy made it back upstairs. “I’m back! Sheesh, takes a bit to run all them stairs,” she grumbled.

“Get your arse into bed, missy. I mean it.” Michelle pointed a stern finger back into the room.

Eggsy scooted by her and headed straight for the bed. She climbed in, and after a couple minutes of tossing and turning and hating that it was big and empty and the wrong bed, her exhaustion finally caught up with her. She passed out – hard.

When she woke up, she felt almost hungover, brain foggy and mouth tasting like something had died in it. She groaned as she rolled out of bed and stumbled into the bathroom. She found one of the spare wrapped toothbrushes they kept stocked, scrubbed her teeth until she could tolerate her own breath, washed her face, and went in search of clothes. Her own weren’t fit to wear, and as it had been her spare suit, she was sorely lacking in apparel of her own. She helped herself to a pair of her mum’s jeans and a sweater, mumbling grumpily over her failure to stop and get her and Harry more clothes when she’d gone to fetch her mother.

She made her way down to ops and was pleased to see a skeleton crew monitoring things. Roxy was at Merlin’s station and threw her an unimpressed look when she walked in. “How’s the world? Still not burnin’?” she asked.

“Still not burning,” Roxy confirmed. “Your hairs a bit of a mess. And, honestly Eggsy, those clothes….”

“Yeah, I know. They’re mum’s, ain’t they? Ain’t got nothin’ else, unless I wanna go dig out some of the old trainee gear or somethin’. S’pose I coulda stayed in her jimjams, but I can’t see how that’d be better. Any word on the food or the syringe?”

“The food tested clean, so the kitchens are back in business. I understand the head cook, however, demanded your mother’s chicken soup recipe. The syringe….” Roxy shook her head. “It was insane. She got ahold of a vial of the neurotoxin. Merlin about hit the roof! The whole place is on lockdown, and the labs and armory are undergoing a complete inventory.”

“Is she stupid? I mean, yeah, she’s stupid but. The point was for it to look like James just died of the head injury. Don’t she know what that shite does to a body?”

“Apparently not.”

“Huh. S’pose I shouldn’t be surprised. I’m off to get some tea, then down to see James. Unless you need a hand with anythin’?”

“I’m good. Go get your tea, finish waking up.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Eggsy headed for the kitchen, somewhat surprised to not see her mother presiding over it. She was given a large mug of tea and a fresh scone and summarily shooed out. Munching contentedly, she then made her way down to medical. When she got there, however, she found Harry standing, as though guarding, right outside James’ door. She frowned and opened her mouth.

“He asked to see your mother and little Daisy,” Harry preempted her. “I escorted her down some time ago and promised to make certain they were not disturbed.”

Eggsy sighed, relieved. “Thank fuckin’ god. Was worried he’d put ‘em off longer. He doin’ better after his talk with Gerhart?”

Harry wobbled his hand in a so-so gesture. “This will stick with him for some time, I believe. But he was willing to see his family, which I hope is an improvement.”

Eggsy nodded and sipped her tea, and found herself shifting uncomfortably. Now that she was better rested, not to mention caffeinated, her talk with her mother was running through her head and sounding more sensible than she’d have liked to admit. They’d all been under incredible stress, with little to no sleep, and they’d all overreacted to everything. As she sipped, she also studied Harry. He kept darting little glances at her from a carefully bland face that made her wince internally. He hated when they fought, and typically they settled any fights when they happened. They never let them drag out like this. Her sense of time was fucked, she wasn’t sure if it was day or night, much less which day or night, but it had still dragged on. And she was all too aware of the fact that it was largely her fault that it had done so. She had definitely made it plain that she wasn’t ready to talk the last time she’d seen him. Nodding to herself, she drained the last of her tea in one long gulp, set the mug on the floor, and stepped up close to him. She took his hand. “Can we talk, love?”

Harry blew out a relieved breath. “Yes, please, darling.”

“I’m sorry,” she said bluntly. “We was all tired an’ stressed, but that ain’t no excuse for bein’ as pissy as I was an’ not even lettin’ you have a proper say. Ain’t sayin’ I regret testing the chip like I did, ‘cause I still stand by that, but. That don’t mean you ain’t allowed to be freaked out an’ react to it. An’ it sure ain’t okay to drag it out like I did.”

Harry laced their fingers together. “I’m still not happy you did that. But you were right, we had to make sure before we sent it out as an effective countermeasure, you took what precautions you could, and…I truly could not expect you to test something like that on anyone else, particularly when it was your own idea. I would do the same. But I will never be sorry for valuing your life above all others, darling. I can control it, most of the time, but it is very much how I feel.”

“C’mere.” She reached up to thread her fingers through his hair so she could pull him down into a kiss. He pulled her close as they kissed, and it was a bit like coming home. Her spine melted a little, and she just kissed and kissed him until neither of them could really breathe. She pressed her face into his neck, breathing in his smell with every slightly shuddering inhale. She could just barely smell his cologne there. He smelled largely of stale sweat instead. She didn’t care, except that it meant he hadn’t taken the time to take care of himself in even longer than it had been for her. “I love you.”

“And I love you, darling. More than the world.” He tucked his nose into her hair and made a displeased sound. “Your hair smells wrong.”

She let out a short bark of laughter. “Don’t it just? Mum all but threw me in the shower in her rooms, so I had to use her stuff.”

“I really wish I could take you home.”

“A bit longer, love.” They stood entwined for a long while. Eventually, reluctantly, she lifted her head. “I should go see how Percy’s comin’ along with the investigation. Unless you think Merlin needs the help with the inventory?”

“No, he’ll only be a bear if either of us tries. He has that well in hand.”

Eggsy looked significantly at the door they were guarding. “Lemme know when they’re done talkin? I wanna look in on ‘em both, make sure they’re as okay as they can be.”

“Of course, darling. If all goes well, I believe I will join you in your efforts. I worked under Chester for a very long time. I feel rather responsible for not seeing something was amiss with him sooner.”

“We all got that one on our shoulders, love. You made the connection when none of us woulda – same with the other two. We’ll fix Kingsman back up. We’ll make it better.”

“Indeed we shall, darling. However, we are most definitely taking that holiday as soon as we possibly can.”

“And fuckin’ how, love.”

Eggsy stepped away, stooped to grab her mug, stepped back for another kiss, then finally made her way back up to the offices. Percival was in his own office, broken leg propped on a chair, intensely staring at his computer screen. “How goes the investigation, Perc?”

“Problematic. I truly thought we had the final three conspirators and this investigation would prove that. I was wrong.” He beckoned her forward and she rounded the desk to see what he was looking at. Her eyebrows shot up when she looked at the face on the screen. “Following the pattern you found, I found one more person that Chester had off the record meetings with, no cameras running. Jacob Hardison met with Chester no less than four times in the last two months, each time with the surveillance disabled.”

“Jesus, he’s in R & D,” she breathed. “Develops our chems, ain’t it?”

“Just so. He was supposed to have been working on refining our amnesia darts to lengthen the amount of time lost in the target. God knows what he’s been really working on.”

“Merlin know yet?”

“Not yet. I was attempting to compile all footage that we have of him from the first meeting with Chester forward in the hope that I could determine what he was doing.” Percival rubbed his eyes. “I’ve been staring at this damned screen for hours. My head fucking hurts. Merlin will have to completely tear apart the labs to find everything he touched.”

“He’s already been doin’ that, kinda. Inventory, t’see if that bitch nurse got her hands on more than one vial of the toxin or anything else.” She straightened. “Fucker is probably down there right now, helpin’ with it – let Harry know where I’m goin’, I wanna get this prick in a cell _now_.”

“Right.”

Eggsy tore out of his office and ran down to the labs. R & D was in a separate wing of the sublevels that took it out from under the mansion. It had been constructed with the idea that, if a bomb or something else exploded, the force would be directed up and relatively harmlessly destroy the lawn rather than the mansion or the rest of the sublevels. It could also be completely sealed off in the event of a chemical spill. She had to pass through ops on the way there and paused to alert Roxy. Her friend’s face hardened and she snapped at one of the techs to take over. A little bemused, Eggsy had to almost trot to keep up with her. “I wanna get this prick too, Rox, but what’s –“

“He’s been working side by side with Hamish on the inventory – within arm’s reach, literally,” she spat. “Who knows what he could have on him in case Hamish gets too close to something?”

“Okay, fair point, but if we both go stormin’ in there like this, it’s gonna tip him off.” Eggsy grabbed her arm and pulled her to a stop outside the door to R & D. “Just – hold up a second, yeah?”

“How about this? Everyone knows you two had a fight. I’ll drag you in there like I’m going to make you apologize and I’m really furious with you. Should throw him off long enough to get close enough to take down.”

“That’ll work.” Roxy twisted to take her arm in a firm grip, pasted on a furious look, and dragged Eggsy through the door. Merlin was in the chem lab section, clipboard in hand, stern look on his face, as the lab techs went through each cabinet and refrigerator to take a manual count of the contents. Not two meters from him, their quarry was taking out and examining vials from a small box one by one. The faint sounds of movement died out as the occupants noticed the two women stalking towards them. “I think,” Roxy said, sounding furious, “that since you decided to publicly be a bitch, you can publicly apologize!”

Merlin looked astonished as they neared and Roxy gave her a little push, as though shoving her in front of him. Eggsy pretended to stumble and pushed Merlin to the side. She fetched up against the counter right next to Hardison. “Oi! Roxy, that’s a bit much, innit?” she protested.

Lips thin, Roxy stalked by her lover to shake her finger in Eggsy’s face. “No more than you deserve for that rotten display you put on!” Her eyes flickered slightly and they both moved, each grabbing onto one of Hardison’s wrists and twisting them behind him. Roxy kicked his knees to take him down to the floor. “Merlin, search him,” she gritted out, holding as tightly as Eggsy was against the man’s sudden struggles.

Merlin shook off his astonishment and complied, trusting their judgement. Tucked into the man’s waistband, he found a pouch that contained an ice pack wrapped around three very small vials. They were unmarked. “What the bloody hell is this?” he demanded. He shook one of the little vials in Hardison’s face. None of them were reassured by the way the man went white and yelled, “Be careful you idiot! Don’t drop those!”

“He had four secret meetings with Chester in the last coupla months,” Eggsy explained. “Percy was tryin’ to figure out what he’s been workin’ on, but.” She shrugged. “He’s been puttin’ together all the footage of him since that first meetin’.”

Merlin wrapped the vials back in the cold pack and carried them over to a giant freezer. It had a very intimidating digital lock on it. He punched in a code, put the vials inside, then punched in a different code when he shut it. “Everyone – out! I’m closing this wing down until everyone here has been cleared,” he ordered. There was some shuffling but no grumbling as everyone put away what they’d been working on and filed out the door. Eggsy was a little sad to see the suspicious looks they were all giving each other.

Under their hands, Hardison began to shake as Merlin approached. She had never seen the expression on the bald man’s face as he crouched down to be eye level. “You’re going to tell me what those vials are,” he said mildly. “Or I am going to determine the effects by locking you in an airtight room and throwing one on the floor at your feet. If that has no effect, though I doubt, considering your fear of them breaking, then I will inject the substance into you.”

“It’s a bioweapon. Highly unstable, highly fatal. Arthur – Chester wanted me to stabilize it, get it into a form that would be practical. As it is, it kills all mammalian life forms, and can spread unbelievably far,” Hardison babbled. “He wanted it ingestible – so it could be used in a targeted fashion, rather than killing everything and everyone that breathed it in.”

“Why? Valentine’s cull was already going to take out the majority of the world’s population. What did he need it for?” Roxy demanded.

“To take out the ones left – the undesirables that survived.” He went limp in their hold when Merlin punched him.

Eggsy almost fell, thrown off by the sudden weight combined with the sudden weakness of her limbs. “Oh my god. How evil can one man be?” she whispered.

“There would have been survivors – there would have to be. People who were isolated, pockets where the SIM cards weren’t heavily distributed. With Valentine’s plan, they would have been an effective work force, not to mention a vital component in genetic diversity.” Merlin took his glasses off, rubbing his eyes much as Percival had done. “Valentine had hundreds of people in his pocket, but that wouldn’t necessarily be a viable breeding number. The male to female ratio was imbalanced, with many more men than women. Some of those women were beyond breeding age, further decreasing the breeding population. Without those survivors, humanity would have struggled to survive.”

“Chester didn’t think of that,” Roxy said, voice dull. “He didn’t think of them as human, did he? They were ‘undesirables’.”

“Ever think I killed him too quick?” She looked down at the unconscious man on the floor between them. “Let’s get him to the cells. I wanna go wash my hands.”

Merlin bent to hoist him up over his shoulder. “You two first. I’ll be locking this wing down when we leave. It won’t open again until we’ve cleared every last person in Kingsman,” he said grimly. “Roxy, I want you back in ops. Pay attention to every handler in there. If you need to, send more out for breaks, cut the number you have to watch down. When you begin to tire, alert us. We’ll be sleeping in shifts from here on out. Eggsy, run to medical. James should be past the point of seeing double. Let him know he’s on the roster for watching ops – and the personnel.”

Eggsy nodded unhappily, but she couldn’t blame him. They were right back to only being able to trust a core handful. Some things would have to be done by others, there was just too much to do, but the rest of them would have to alternate watching people and clearing everyone. The only upshot was that their pool of people to keep watch would grow as others were cleared. She and Roxy headed out and split off when they left R & D, Eggsy to medical and Roxy back to ops. Michelle and Daisy were still in with James and Harry was starting to look a little bored around the edges. Eggsy gave him a terse update and together, they entered James’ room.

Michelle looked a little pissed at their entrance. Her eyes were red and puffy, though it seemed the actual tears had run out. Daisy was sleeping peacefully on her father’s chest, with JB on the bed at James’ feet. “James, you’re back on duty,” she said grimly. She hurried to give them the update as Michelle swelled up with anger. “We ain’t got no choice, mum,” she finished. “There’s six of us we’re absolutely sure of, an’ James is one of ‘em. We need him on shift helpin’ to keep an eye on everyone til we clear ‘em. I ain’t no happier than you. Ain’t no one happy that Chester had someone workin’ on a bioweapon meant to target the lower class. We’re all fucked if he was workin’ with anyone else an’ we don’t figure it out.”

“His head is still achin’ somethin’ fierce. You _know_ what a concussion feels like, babes,” Michelle shot back.

“We all do,” James agreed, reaching out to lay a hand on her arm. “I have my duty, same as the rest. I’ll be fine. Merlin will take me back out of rotation as soon as he can. He does not like taking chances with his patients if he can help it.”

“This is some bullshit. I don’t like it,” Michelle declared. She glared at Harry. “An’ you’re just gonna let this happen, are you? Thought you was in charge right now.”

“I am,” Harry agreed. “And we have little choice, as Eggsy has already explained. If you would care to lend assistance yourself, we could use an eye in the kitchens again. We confirmed the food was previously untainted before. We can be assured that you will not attempt to poison any of us, but we will have to clear the kitchen and household staff as well. Though they do not have direct access to the labs, if any of them were working for Chester, they may have conspired with Hardison or someone else. Should any of them begin to grow desperate, there’s no telling what they might attempt.” He shrugged and gave her a flat, no nonsense sort of stare. “I cannot express how dire our current circumstance is at present, Michelle. If there remains a traitor within Kingsman, we are all in danger still.”

Michelle took a deep breath and Eggsy cut her off. “Mum! You think any of us like any part of this? You can either help or keep out of the way, but James is gonna be helpin’, same as us. Please just don’t make this any fuckin’ harder than it already is.”

“Fine,” she gritted out. “But if somethin’ happens to ‘im ‘cause of you’s, I ain’t gonna forgive you.” She leaned over to give James a slow kiss, then scooped Daisy up. She turned towards the door, but paused to glare once more at Harry. “You best not cost me another husband, Hart,” she hissed.

“Michelle!”

“Mum!”

Unrepentant, Michelle stalked out of the room. Eggsy glared after her.

“I’ll talk to her later, Eggsy,” James said somberly. “Don’t fret.”

“I ain’t frettin’, I’m fumin’!”

“Well, don’t,” Harry advised. “It’s natural for her to be afraid. If we had a choice, neither of us would be doing this.”

Eggsy held her tongue. It might be natural for her mum to be afraid, but laying her father’s death at Harry’s feet wasn’t okay. Not under any circumstances. They worked out a rough schedule, then she sent Harry off to shower and get some sleep. After giving James a fast hug, she went to relieve Percival.

For the next twenty-four hours, they worked on staggered shifts, swapping off the research with monitoring ops. No one worked more than six hours at either task in order to keep their minds sharp. She saw James in passing twice, and each time he was pale but holding steady. It was a slow process to clear even one person, twice as slow to clear the agents. Any time Chester was spotted taking a call on a spare cell that they hadn’t known he’d had, they had to cross reference each person they could to make sure they weren’t also on their phones. Kay was the first to be fully cleared, and Merlin grudgingly let James go back on rest in the med bay.

But gradually, they were able to whittle away at the number of people that remained as suspects. They hadn’t found any further conspirators so far, and Eggsy was crossing her fingers that Hardison had been the last. The work went faster as each of the other agents was cleared and able to pitch in. It still took a full four days for them to be certain of everyone, and Merlin was able to lift the lockdown on R & D to do the inventory.

Michelle wasn’t seen around the place even once, and the hallway surveillance on the third floor showed that she hadn’t left the apartment except for food. Eggsy, and indeed most everyone, had been reduced to wearing trainee clothing, as their suits could only be dry cleaned.

When at last Harry and Merlin both decreed Kingsman clear of any further traitors, all but a skeleton crew was given leave. Handlers, techs, and household staff were all given a schedule that allowed them all three days to go home and rest properly. Harry then turned around and sent Merlin and Roxy home, remaining behind with Eggsy and Derek to keep running the show for a few days. While Harry headed to his office to try to reassess the world and any potential missions that had cropped up, Eggsy headed upstairs to talk to her mother.

Initially, Michelle wasn’t inclined to open the door for her. Eggsy picked the lock and stepped in, a furious glint in her eyes. Michelle angrily pointed at the door. “Take a hint, babes. I ain’t ready to talk.”

“Tough shit, mum. You’re gonna listen.” She stabbed a finger of her own at a chair and glared her mother into sitting. “I don’t give a flyin’ fuck how pissed you are,” she hissed out furiously. “You **don’t** get to put dad’s death on Harry.”

“It was his fault, by his own admission! He said he missed somethin’. A grenade, accordin’ to what you told me.” Michelle argued. “So he don’t get to put my husband in needless danger again!”

“Fuck off with that,” Eggsy said bluntly. “Yeah, Harry missed somethin’. So did James, an’ Merlin, an’ **dad**. Ain’t a one o’ them that spotted it. More, Harry realized it first an’ tried to jump on first. Dad pushed him out o’ the way. **Dad** made that choice. An’ you been up here sulkin’ like a kid this whole time, while we was all workin’ to make sure we was safe. You think this was a lark? James was taken off duty again three days ago, you even been down t’ see him? Don’t fuckin’ answer that, I know you ain’t. Y’got more sense than this, mum. What the fuck is really goin’ on with you?”

“I want you to quit. You an’ James, I want you both t’ quit,” Michelle blurted after a few moment’s thought. “I knew it was dangerous, but this – this is so much worse than I coulda guessed! You ain’t even safe at your own headquarters!”

Eggsy stared at her. “No. I can’t answer for James, but I ain’t quittin’. This job needs t’ be done, an’ I’m good at it. If it weren’t for us, the whole world woulda burned.”

“If it wasn’t for one o’ your own, it wouldn’t have gotten so bad!”

“Bullshit. Chester King was a blight on Kingsman, no denyin’ that. Far as we can tell, ain’t no other actual government run agency that even had a clue where to start lookin’. We act where others can’t. I seen it over an’ over.”

Michelle’s face twisted. “I – I get that. I do,” she insisted. “But why does it have to be _you_? Ain’t you done enough? Let someone else do it. I can’t lose someone else to this job, Eggsy.”

“It has to be me because I choose it to be me. I am very good at this, mum. I love it. There’ll come a day when I don’t, got no doubt of that. But that day ain’t today. An’ if it is for James, that’s his choice. You knew what he was, best we could all tell you, when you got involved with him. When you married him an’ had Daisy with him. Don’t you dare try to guilt him into quitting. You try that shit, an’ you can bet you’s gonna lose _me_ , ‘cause I won’t forgive you for it. James is the nearest thing to a dad I can remember havin’. I won’t have you hurtin’ him just ‘cause you’re afraid. He’s hurtin’ enough as is.”

“You don’t get it, babes. You don’t know what it’s like, losin’ someone you love like breathin’. I never thought I could feel like this again after your dad. Losin’ James too…I couldn’t stand it!”

“You could,” Eggsy said brutally, “because you wouldn’t have a choice. You respect him enough to let him make his own choice, an’ never forget that Daisy was yours, an’ whatever happens, she’ll need you. James is always gonna do what he can to come home to both of you’s, an’ believe me, what he can do is an awful lot. We cut out the rot, an’ Kingsman is only gonna be better after this. You walked into this, an’ now it’s your job to love an’ support him best you can. I know you’re afraid, mum. I get it, maybe better’n you do. I saw it happen to ‘im, an’ for a good while, I thought that bullet actually connected. I ain’t ever gonna forget what that grief felt like.”

“What if I can’t?” Michelle whispered. “What if I can’t do it, Eggsy? If I can’t watch him walk out the door in the mornin’, not knowin’ if he’d come home to me….”

Eggsy shook her head. “I can’t answer that for you, mum. You can’t do it, then I dunno what you’s gonna do. I dunno what James is gonna do.” She ran her hands through her hair, a little frustrated. “I guess, what you gotta ask yourself is, is bein’ with him better than bein’ without him? If he chooses to stay in Kingsman, an’ you walk away, is bein’ without him, losin’ whatever time you woulda got with him, gonna make things easier if he _does_ die on the job? With me an’ Harry, that’s what it comes down to. If I lost him tomorrow, every day I had with ‘im would still be worth it. I still say five months with ‘im is worth more than five decades with anyone else. How about you?” She walked over finally and crouched, taking her mother’s hands. “Only you can answer that. Whatever your answer is, it’s your choice. Whatever James decides, that’ll be his choice. Everyone has to live with their choices. What you don’t get t’ do is blame Harry for other people makin’ their choices – not even dad’s. He chose that day to sacrifice himself for three very good men. An’ you can be angry at ‘im for it, you can forgive ‘im for it, or anythin’ in between, but it weren’t Harry’s fault.”

“Ain’t it supposed t’ be me talkin’ sense into you? I’m the mum,” she joked weakly.

“Weren’t that long ago you did just that. ‘S what family does, yeah? It’s been a shite few months, really. We’s all at the ends of our ropes. We’re in a good place for a break. The world ain’t on edge, an’ even the normal crime an’ shit seems on hold. Go see ‘im, mum. He ain’t seen you in days, an’ I just bet he’d love it. He’s been hoggin’ JB all this time.”

“I will,” she promised. “What Daisy wakes up from her nap.”

“Okay.”

Eggsy left her alone to think things through, hoping her mother could come to a choice they could all live with. She made her way down to Harry’s office, smiling when he looked up with a frown. “Everything okay, darling? You’re supposed to be resting.”

She rounded his desk and sat herself in his lap when he swiveled his chair to face her. “I’ll rest,” she promised. “I know I gotta relieve Derek in a bit. I just needed a bit o’ time with you, is all.” She let her legs drape over the arm of his chair and laid her head on his shoulder, sighing happily to feel his arms go around her.

“I can hardly say no to that. Been to see your mother lately?”

“Yup. We had ourselves a nice long chat. She asked me to quit Kingsman.”

His arms tightened around her. “I can hardly blame her for that,” he admitted. “I’ve had to resist the same urge myself, a time or two. Such a thing is your choice, however, and as I am hardly willing to quit, I will never ask it of you.”

“I know. Think I don’t? Feel the same way about you,” she agreed. “Just hope she doesn’t ask it of James. It’s gotta be his choice, an’ I don’t want her giving ‘im ultimatums. He ain’t in a good place, an’ I don’t know what it’d do to ‘im if she did.”

“I don’t think she will. She’s had a series of terrible frights. Once the terror recedes to a distance, she’ll come around. Now hush, darling. You’re supposed to be resting, remember? The sofa is quite comfortable.”

“So are you. Unless I’m too heavy?” she teased.

Harry laughed quietly into her hair. “Oh no, dearest. I’ll not fall for such an obvious trap. You’re light as a feather.” He shifted a bit, settling her a little more snugly, then resumed working on the files stacked on his desk.

She relieved Derek to get some down time, monitoring the information their people were constantly gathering. The world was staying quiet, however, and it was an uneventful shift. A fact for which she was grateful. Governments were still in disarray, but essential services were being performed and the general population of the world was just trying to resume daily life. Elections were being organized to start replacing headless politicians, and the less badly injured soldiers of the world were slowly going back to active duty. Mental health services were going at full capacity as traumatized people sought help in record numbers. The deaths that had been caused due to the signal were declared homicides, but with _Valentine_ as the perpetrator. To a certain extent, Eggsy thought that the courts’ rulings on that, in every country where a court had weighed in, was going a long way towards helping people to deal with what had been done. On a slightly more mercenary note, it also helped a great many survivors monetarily, as life insurance policies would be paid out. The stock market was continuing a slow but steady recovery, and industries were all coming back online.

It was all very reassuring to watch in progress. The world wasn’t the hopeless case that Valentine had thought it to be.

When Harry relieved her, she made her way down to James’ room. He was awake and reading a book when she peeked around his open door. “Hey,” she said quietly. “Up for a visit?”

“For you, dear girl, always.” He set the book aside and swung his legs over the side of the bed as she approached. She leaned in for a hug, then sat next to him. “Is the world still turning?”

“Of course. Quite peacefully, actually. There’s remarkably little crime, and life is returning to normal slow but sure.” She ran gentle fingers over the bandage around his head. “How’s this?”

“Healing, slow but sure. The bandages should come off soon. I’m told the worst of the scar will be hidden under my hair.”

Eggsy grinned. “That’s good. Be a shame to mar that pretty face,” she teased.

James smiled back, but it lacked its usual cocky jocularity. “One of the few assets I have left.”

“Hey, that ain’t true,” Eggsy protested.

James sighed and took her hand. “I’m afraid it very well might be. I’m not at all certain I have what it takes anymore, Eggsy.”

“No shame in that.” He gave her a disbelieving look. “I’m serious,” she insisted.

“I’ve been doing this job for seventeen years, Eggsy. Most Kingsman go much longer, unless death interrupts their career. I should still have plenty of life left in me.”

“An’ you do. That don’t mean that life has to be in the field.” James looked away. “James, please. No one – **no one** – has been through what you were. Most everyone was affected by that signal, but most of ‘em don’t have our trainin’. Most of ‘em didn’t get used to kill as many people as you did. I can’t imagine what that feels like. If you’re done, you’re done. You think any one of us would think any less of you?”

“It hardly helps when I think less of me.”

Eggsy went quiet and laid her head on his shoulder, just staring down at where he was holding her hand for a while. “Back durin’ my trainin’, I was havin’ a really hard time with the NLP – before I found out the point was to tie us to train tracks. I wasn’t sure I could do it – sleep with some poor girl in a club, just to pass a damned test. I felt dirty just thinkin’ o’ it. I talked it over with Harry. He said somethin’ I ain’t never forgot: this job damages us all, and there may well come a day when you can no longer take that damage. We take the damage so others don’t have to. You took a fuck ton o’ damage with this one, James. If you hit your limit, you hit your damned limit. We all got one – for the last Tristan, it was kids. If this was it for you? Not sure any o’ us could be easy with what happened to you. I **know** I couldn’t be.”

“Some of them were so young,” James said painfully.

“I know.”

“I simply – if I should go out in the field, I am just not sure I wouldn’t freeze entirely when a situation turned lethal.”

“An’ that’d get you killed, which none of us would thank you for. You ain’t gotta decide anytime soon. Talk to Gerhart. When you’s released, take mum an’ Daisy home an’ cuddle your baby girl. Maybe you decide to retire. Maybe you decide to step into a non-combat role. Merlin might like t’ have someone to back him up, take a bit o’ pressure off. You got options, bruv.”

“I know. Perhaps when I stop dreaming of the church, I’ll be able to see those options more clearly.”

Eggsy didn’t say that she doubted those dreams would ever really stop. There were times she still woke up from a dream of Dean’s rage filled face as he sank that knife into her gut, or relived her old nightmares of her mother dying of an overdose or tainted heroin. Didn’t matter to her brain that Dean was long since in jail and her mother had been clean for even longer. But the dreams would get less frequent, that she was sure of. “Whatcha readin’?” she asked instead.

“Oh, an old favorite. Have you ever read Terry Pratchett?”

“Nope. What’s he write?”

“Fantasy satire. Really quite humorous.” After a bit more prodding, she got him to describe the novels and his favorite characters, and after even more prodding, along with a dose of whining, got him to start reading to her aloud – purely as practice for Daisy, of course. That it clearly took his mind off things for a bit, and even let a bit of amusement enter his tone as he read, was a total coincidence. Michelle crept into the room after a couple of chapters, carrying a tray with lunch in her hands and Daisy strapped to her chest. Eggsy and James shifted around on the bed to make room for them, and James just kept reading.


	11. Chapter 11

Staff began to return after their brief vacation, allowing those that had remained behind to go home for their own. Eggsy caught Merlin as he was starting to review their reports from the last few days. “Hey, bruv, gimme a sec?”

“What is it, Eggsy?” Merlin glanced up at her , though most of his focus remained on work.

“I wanted to apologize. It’s long overdue. I shouldn’t have darted you. I’d have broken the arms of anyone who did that to me, an’ I weren’t right that I did it to you.” Roxy hadn’t exactly been wrong when they’d gone in to apprehend Hardison. She knew what she’d done had gotten around, and a public apology was no more than the man was owed.

Merlin looked surprised. “Oh. That. Thank you for that, Eggsy. Consider it forgotten – provided you don’t do it again.”

“Deal.”

“Now get the hell out of here.”

James was released from medical, so all five of them, plus little JB, went home together. Michelle was doing very well at downplaying the worry that lived behind her eyes, and Eggsy could tell that she hadn’t said anything to James about quitting.  Eggsy thought her fear was finally fading, which had to help. She was back to the steady, rock solid support she normally was.

When she and Harry finally walked through the front door of their home, she almost wept with relief. Once again, it felt as though they’d been gone for months, rather than just weeks. They had to do a quick clean out of the fridge and take out some very stinky garbage, but both tasks were accomplished quickly. With the windows open, the smell dissipated, letting them both trudge up the stairs. Eggsy wasted no time in stripping down to her knickers and falling face first into their bed. She waved a hand behind her. “C’mere, love.”

“On my way, darling.” Harry joined her soon after, similarly stripped to his boxers. Eggsy rolled to her side and determinedly pulled his arm around her, cuddling back into the curve of his body. JB hopped up onto the bed when they were settled and tucked himself into her stomach. “Finally,” Harry sighed.

“I don’t wanna move for nothin’ for as long as we can.”

“You’ll get no arguments from me.”

They enjoyed a blissful three days at home, barring a fast trip to the  grocery store for fresh milk and such. They didn’t talk about work. They didn’t turn on the news.  They just stayed home, made love, walked JB, and watched old movies or read . It wasn’t quite the full holiday they wanted, but it was a badly needed break  away from stress and responsibility. 

On the fourth day, they once again pulled on their suits  and headed for the shop. James joined them, bandage gone and hair carefully coiffed to hide the  still bright pink scar of the bullet graze. They were solemn as they took the train back to HQ.  When they arrived, Harry broke away to join Merlin  and Eggsy and James joined the rest of Kingsman in the ballroom.  Slowly, every member of Kingsman, from agents to the kitchen staff, filtered in.  When everyone had gathered, they waited silently. It wasn’t an occasion for gossip  or bickering or joking around. 

The doors opened, and Eggsy straightened, as did most of the people in the room.  Their four traitors were led in, each of them in heavy restraints that barely allowed their feet to shuffle them forward.  Rhys and Julian particularly had difficulty, considering their injuries weren’t even close to healed.  They were made to face their audience, their comrades, whom they’d betrayed. 

“Julian Winters, Rhys Matheson, Nancy  Flint, and Jacob Hardison,” Harry began, voice strong and carrying through the room. “You are all  guilty of conspiring with Chester King to assist Richmond Valentine in his efforts to bring about a worldwide genocide.  You have betrayed the the foundation of Kingsman, your fellow agents,  and all of humanity.  We have no choice but to sentence you to death. You have this one final chance to face those you betrayed and offer what mitigating circumstances may have influenced you , or at least to apologize if there is even a shred of decency still hiding somewhere within you. ”

Hardison broke down crying. “I didn’t have a choice! Chester  threatened me, he threatened my family!” His three cohorts looked at him with no small measure of disgust.

Merlin shook his head. “A single word to myself or any other agent here would have saved your life and your family’s. ”

Julian rolled his eyes . “Dear god, just do it. If it isn’t the woman moaning how her daddy loved her it’s him moaning  about not wanting to die. ”

“Here here,” Rhys agreed. “We followed our leader , we’ll take the consequences. I’ve never apologized for following Chester before, I won’t do so now.”

“Does anyone wish to address them before they’re executed?” Harry asked bluntly  when it seemed the prisoners had nothing further to say.

“They’re hardly worth the breath,” James called out.  “Get it done and cast their carcasses into the Thames!”

“I’d say that river is polluted enough as is,” Roxy said coldly.

There was a general murmur of agreement. 

Harry nodded. Face grim,  he withdrew a small knife from a case in his pocket. “Any volunteers ?”

Eggsy stepped forward. “I can field this one, Galahad .”

“Oh ho!” Julian chortled. “The pleb finally gets a chance to get a little of her own back!”

“I did that when I beat your ass down in the middle of Austria,” Eggsy fired back.  She held her hand out for the knife , frowning when Harry hesitated to hand it over. “I got this, Galahad,” she murmured. “I worked with them the least  – you don’t have to carry this.”

Hiding a wince, Harry handed it over . “Just a knick will do it – it’s coated in the neurotoxin.”

“Got it.”  It was harder than she’d thought it would be to approach Rhys , but she kept her spine and shoulders straight and her face blank. It got easier when she faced him and saw the contempt that, even now, filled his eyes.  The knife flicked out, barely knicking the skin on his throat . The poison moved swiftly, and within seconds, he lay dead on the floor. Julian was  next ,  and  accepted his fate with equal dignity – she would give them both that much credit. When she turned to Nancy, the woman spat at her, then finally began to cry.  Eggsy had only to remember the sight of that syringe, filled with enough of the same poison coating the blade to kill a thousand people, aiming for James’ vulnerable arm.  She flicked the blade again and held her gaze until she fell  to the floor  and her eyes went blank. Hardison she paid little more attention to as he sobbed. She could smell urine when sh e stood in front of him and knew he’d lost control of his bladder even before death.

“The names Geraint and Caradoc are stricken from Kingsman records,” Harry announced  as he took the knife back from her and secured it in the case . “We will begin recruitment for  two new names:  Lionel and Degore.  Knights,  present your proposals  in two weeks. Chester King’s guidelines are no longer in effect. Find us people who will do us proud!”

Dismissed, the solemn group  all began to file out. There would be no toast. There would be no remembrance of services past.  Their betrayal had cast a taint over their prior accomplishments that nothing would ever remove.

Roxy stayed behind with Eggsy even as Harry and Merlin supervised the removal of the four bodies . The y would be sent up in a small, remotely piloted aircraft that would crash into a mountain. The resultant fire would burn  enough of the soft tissue that no trace of the poison itself would be found, if such a test were even attempted.  The flight recorder would register a mechanical malfunction compounded by pilot error.

“I didn’t know you planned to volunteer,” Roxy said quietly, low enough that the others wouldn’t be able to make it out.

“Neither did I,” Eggsy admitted. “But – Harry an’ Merlin, they worked with all of ‘em for years.  I didn’t. They’d have done it, but that didn’t mean they should have to .”

“Sometimes Julian would play poker with Hamish,” Roxy confided.  “Thanks for that.”

“You’re welcome.” She paused  and watched the last of the bodies get zipped into a body bag. “How weird is our life ? Thankin’ someone for killin’ someone else? Did you ever think we’d be here?”

“I knew we’d kill people,” Roxy allowed. “I never expected it, even after our first mission, to ever be like this. Will you be alright?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I will.  Even if I wasn’t, I still would be, just so Harry didn’t have to take this on his own shoulders. Or Merlin, or James. ” She turned her back so there was no chance of either man seeing her face. “Besides,  this gives me the full house, don’t it?”

“That’s kind of terrible,” Roxy reproved. “True, but terrible.” 

“What is?” Harry asked, sliding his arm around Eggsy’s waist.

“Me, basically. You okay, love?”

“It’s a very bitter day,” Harry admitted. “We’ve never had a traitor in Kingsman before. To have had five? ” He shook his head. “We’ll all be feeling this for a very long time.”  Harry kissed the side of her head. “You did yourself proud, darling.  You did us all proud.” 

“Had t’ be done,” Eggsy said simply.

“We have to return in two weeks when the proposals arrive. Until then, we are on holiday. Once training begins, all personnel will be rotated out for  two week  holidays . Miss Morton, I believe you’ll find that both yourself and Merlin are on holiday as well , as Merlin will be required to remain here for the duration of the training process.  Percival has agreed to supervise Kingsman while his leg is still healing, under the proviso that his holiday will occur when it  has  and he is free to go swimming .”

Roxy grinned, though it wasn’t quite as bright and cheerful as it usually was. “Wonderful! Then you and Hamish can take care of the packing – Eggsy and I have a long overdue girls’ day out to get to.”

“I seem to recall that having been mentioned .”  He laughed as Roxy grabbed her arm and pulled her away, all but dragging her out of the ballroom. Eggsy blew him a kiss as she was towed out .


End file.
